2. The government, or system of political organization. It is here that we are most forcibly convinced of the propriety of distinguishing C. from absolute progress, or the devices intended for improvement from actual improvement. Scarcely anything in the whole political system of Great Britain, for instance, has commanded unanimous appro bation first and last; nearly all the changes have been carried against reluctant minori ties, and every now and then voices are raised against institutions accounted by the mass of the nation the very bulwark of our national greatness; as, for example, the par liamentary control of the sovereign authority.
One aim of social reformers has been to make the necessary functions of govern ment compatible with a larger and larger range of individual liberty. The majority of men call this state of things not merely an intended but a real improvement; not merely C., but progress. Still, there is never wanting a class of minds that see only the dis advantageous side of this and all other social innovations.
Connected with liberty, we may also notice the growth of human sentiment in all classes, the governing power included. When we revert to the horrible punishments to which men were subjected in this country not many generations since, not only for real crimes, but out of mere superstitious antipathies, as in the burning of witches, we are apt to feel ashamed of our own ancestors, and to congratulate ourselves ou having our lot cast in a milder age.
8. The arts of social intercourse, embracing the material machinery of conveyance and communication; and also what may be called the moral machinery, such as forms of procedure for regulating assemblies, and the minor courtesies of life.
4. The scheme of morality established in a community appertains to their civiliza tion. But in this, also, difference of opinion prevails, when we compare different countries and times. Morality, in fact, has always been more or less a part of religion, which must also be viewed as an institution pertaining to civilized men, whether of their own invention or the result of supernatural communication. In any case, there is
mixed up with every religion much that is purely Truman, and which may be judged of by its tendencies to promote human welfare, like any other arrangement of society. This being the subject of all others that men have most differed upon, no criterion of progress can be laid down, because none would be universally received. The uncon verted pagans alive at the final establishment of Christianity, naturally believed that the human mind was thrown backward by that event. • 5. Science is the least disputed of all the ingredients of civilization.
6. Literature and the fine arts make part of the C. of mankind. They are a new class of pleasures, superadded to the gratifications of mere sense, and of a kind that can be partaken equally by a large number of people. Instead of rivalry and contention, which are inseparable from the struggle for food, money, or power, the arts tend to sociability and good-fellowship. Every contribution to architecture, painting, 'music, etc., is a result of human genius, and intended for human pleasure; but there is not the same unanimity in this case as in the former; for many kinds of art are objected to as corrupting the mind; and too great a devotion to art, on the whole, is said to endanger the just balance of men's regards to the serious interests of life.
The above enumeration will amply show how to define the term C., and of what parts the total is made up. It has also been made apparent that. the point as to whether any invention be an item of genuine progress, is, and ought always to be, an open ques tion. The inventions of original minds intended for placing us further and further from the savage condition, and having that effect, may often be accused of producing new evils, which other arrangements are called for to neutralize. See Chambers' Papers for the People, No. 4, Education of the Citizen.