the standpoint of their enemies, the reverse
statement is obviously true.

The conception which seems to be superseding the idea of
progress in our day is that of control. Each problem whether
personal or social is thought of as a separate enterprise.
Poverty, disease, crime, vice, intemperance, or war, these are
definite situations which challenge human effort and human
ingenuity. Many problems are unsolved; many failures are
recorded. The future is a challenge to creative intelligence
and collective heroism. The future is thought of as still to be
made. And there is no assurance that progress will take place.
On the contrary, there is every reason to believe that progress
will not take place unless men are able by their skill and
devotion to find solutions for their present problems, and for
the newer ones that shall arise.

The modern man finds this idea quite as stimulating to him as
the idea of progress was to his ancestor of the Renaissance or
the idea of providence to his medieval forebears. For while he
does not blindly believe nor feel optimistically certain things
will come about all right, yet he is nerved to square his
shoulders, to think, to contrive, and to exert himself to the
utmost in his effort to conquer the difficulties ahead, and to
control the forces of nature and man. The idea of providence
was not merely a generalization on life, it was a force that
inspired hope. The idea of progress was likewise not merely a
concept, it was also an energizing influence in a time of great
intellectual activity. The idea that the forces of nature can
be controlled in the service of man, differs from the others,
but is also a dynamic potency that seems to be equally well
adapted to the twentieth century.

The conception that man's fate lies somehow in his own hands, if it
gains general acceptance, will still be, so far as it inspires men to
work and strive, an article of faith, and the image in which he pictures
the future of mankind, toward which he directs his efforts, will still
have the character of myth. That is the function of myths. It is this
that lends an interest to those ideal states in which men at different
times have sought to visualize the world of their hopes and dreams.

4. Classification of the Materials

The purpose of the materials in this chap