Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/589

 1920 o8l Reviews of Books The Idea of Progress : an Enquiry into its Origin and Growth. By J. B. Bury. (London : Macmillan, 1920.) Professor Bury tells us that this book contains ' a purely historical enquiry, and any discussion of the great issue which is involved lies outside its modest scope. Occasional criticisms on particular forms which the creed of progress assumed, or on arguments which were used to support it, are not intended as a judgement on its general, validity.' It is hardly necessary to say that the author carries out the historical inquiry with great width of learning and with a scrupulous desire to make a reasonable case even for those writers whose presentation has its weak or even its ridiculous points. Among the large number of writers discussed in this volume, most readers will find some of their favourites and some for whom they have an aversion ; they may differ from Mr. Bury accordingly, bub it will be seldom that they will be conscious of a greater difierence than such as their own bias renders natural. His remarks are eminently judicious wherever they can be tested : probably the book will not have many readers whose knowledge will enable them to test it throughout. It is always ungracious to criticize an author for what he has not done and has not professed to do. Yet it seems doubtful whether Mr. Bury has not left out what is bound to be an essential part of his task. He disclaims any intention of examining the value of the theory of progress, though he is certainly not an undiscriminating believer in it. If he dedicates his book to the memories of certain ' optimists ' whom he has occasion to mention, and leaves his readers under the impression that he regards such optimism as a useful quality for those who can share it, he points out that the theory of progress does not admit of proof, that it has been advanced in various inconsistent forms, and that many of its advocates do not trouble themselves about the details of its meaning. He holds, apparently, that progress is the dominant conception of the present day, having succeeded to the belief in Providence, with which it is supposed to be inconsistent. But if we are all believers in progress now, we cannot dispense with a definition of progress. It is not of much use to say that we are all socialists, unless we explain what we mean by socialism ; and theists who mean something vital by their belief have always been impatient with the arguments of certain philosophers which are supposed to prove that it is impossible not to believe in the existence of God. What then is this progress in which we all believe ? Do we mean by it an historical statement that the world has, on the whole, grown better, coupled with a belief or a hope that it will continue to grow better