The morning call., 1892-05-09
DOES THE WORLD MovEq

Ii is matter of regret that Mr.. Gladstone
should have enrolled his name among those
who believe that the human race is decaying
in intellectual yigor; the fact implies that
his own mind is not retaining its cIearness.
The evidence all points in the opposite
direction to the one which England's ex-
Prime Minister is taking.
Until the discoveries of the bones of the
cave jewellers and the drift men, it was quite
frequently assumed that the men OF ancient
times were taller and stronger than those
of the present day. Poets wrote about the
giants, and nursery tales abounded in ad-
ventures of races compared to which our
people are pigmies. As a matter of fact.
no skeleton of the prehistoric period ap-
pears to have belonged TO man whose
stature was equal to that of our talleSt men.
Some skeletons found on the Mediterranean
coast seemed to have formed part of men
whose height was six feet; but by far the
greater number of the bones found in the
drift in France, Germany and Belgium be-
longed to men who were about five feet six,
and whose strength, judging from their arm
and leg bones, must have been less than
that of the strong men of the present day.
The chances are that the intellectual
force Of our ancestors was as inferior to the
intellectual force oil the existing races as
their physical force In works of pure
Imagination and of abstract philosophy
mankind has perhaps made bat little prog
ress within the historic period. 1t is diff
cult to detect actual advance between Ten
nyson and Victor Hugo on one side and
job Ezekiel, Homer and Horace on the
other. Nor can any particular march of
intellect be observed by a comparison be-
tween the leading metaphysicians of to-day
and Aristotle or Plato. But in every other
branch of human thought there is marked
progress. and such rapid progress that text
books become Anticipated and obsolete in
less than a century. This is not only the
case in the exact sciences. in which the
course of discovery necessarily effaces past
theory, but also in such branches of kn0wl-
edge as law. ethics, political economy and
social science, in which progress implies
growing development of the human mind.
If any who are inclined TO accept Mr..
GladstOne's pessimiSm Will compare the
immortal philosophy of Shakespeare with
the laws which prevailed in England in his
time he will be able to decide whether the
human intellect is advancing or not. At
the very time when Shakespeare was giving
voice to thoughts which are as true now as
when he uttered them the English people
had no share in their own government;
debtors starved to death in prison. men
were immured in Jail for a lifetime without
a trial, women had no lawful names, towns
had no drains, ignorance was no fault, vice
scarcely shame, and nobody complained of
these things. Their enormity was not real
lied even by the clearest-headed men Of the
day. Surely it is imposing on public credu-
lily To say that the reforms which have
taken place in these vital matters do not i'm
ply an advance in brain power.
We need not go back to Shakespeare for
proof that mankind is growing wiser and
Drawer and kinder with each generation.
II g who reads McMaster's history is amazed
to find how narrow minded and bigoted
and selfish and hard-hearted aud short
sighted Americans were only a century ago.
Al the very time when Washington and his
compeers we're laying the foundation of the
best government the world had ever known
the masses Of the American people were in
many parts Of the country living in
savagery which cannot be paralleled to-day
outside Of Russia. Women died for want
of care at the period Of maternity; debtors
poked their heads out OF holes called prisons
in Connecticut and begged the wayfareT for
a crust of bread slaves held their lives and
the honor of their daughters at the mercy
of their owners; newspapers reyiled the
best men In the land in the foulest billings
gate; the cripple and the blind were often
left to starYe unless they CHANGED to meet a
good Samaritan. Some Of these things
might happen anywhere even at the pres
ent time, but then they were matters of
common occurrence, ELECTED little or no out
cry nor attracted much attention. Does not
the disappearance of these inGamies imply
a growth in moral and mental stature?
Whoever may hold to the contrary, the
world is growing better every year that
rolls over. Error still rears its head. crimes
occur. injustice is practiced, the weak is
still sometimes crushed to the wall, the
| base still occasionally rise to the surface Of
the social wave, but all these wrongs arouse
an indignant protest from the masses and
in honest mems breasts longing to cure
them fercely burns. 1t will be time to say
that the march Of progress has stopped
when We fud that things base and vile and
| shameful rouse no Indignation.