hat so long as
there is the least waste of life, the least wanton suppression or
destruction of interests, the work of civilization is not done. He
represents those interests which under any system are most heavily
taxed, and presses for their relief.

Conservatism and radicalism, then, are the two half-truths into which
the principle of progress is divided by the propensity of every human
activity to override the mark, and by the confusion of mind that cannot
fail to attend so venturesome and bewildering an undertaking as
civilization.

IV

I have said that it is possible to measure progress because of the
persistence throughout the whole course of human history of certain
identical interests and purposes. When such an interest or purpose is
sufficiently broad in its scope, and gets itself permanently embodied,
it is called an _institution_. Thus _government_ embodies the need of
the general regulation of interests within the social community.
_Education_ is due to the individual's prolonged period of helplessness
and dependence, and the need of assimilating him to the order of his
time. _Science_ is man's {148} knowledge of the ways of nature in
detail, when this is recorded, organized, and preserved as a permanent
utility answering to the permanent need of adaptation. And _religion_
expresses in outer form the human need of reckoning with the final day
of judgment, of establishing right relations with the powers that
underly and overrule the proximate sphere of life. There is no limited
number of institutions, but these are notable examples. Government,
education, science, and religion are fixed moral necessities. They
arise out of those conditions of life which are general and constant.
Hence each has a history coextensive with the history of society
itself. And since the function of each remains identical throughout,
the adequacy with which at any given time it fulfils that function may
be taken as a measure of civilization. Government being the most
prominent of institutions, and its improvement being the deepest
concern of society, I shall select it for special consideration.[5]

I have already referred to the Platonic account of government, given in
the _Republic_. It furnishes the starting-point of all political
philosophy. In the First and Second Books, Plato examines two contrary
sceptical criticisms of government, with a most illuminating result.
In the First Book the sceptic urges the vie