e strivings, the hopes, the conquered failings of
the past, we may form our better selves and build the humanity of the
future.

There is a famous and magnificent passage in Dante's _Purgatorio_ which
Catholic commentators interpret in sacramental terms but we may well
apply in a wider sense to the progress of the human spirit towards the
ideal. It occurs at that crucial point where the ascending poet leaves
the circles of sad repentance to reach the higher regions of growing
light.

'And when we came there, to the first step, it was of white
marble, so polished that I could see myself just as I am.

'And the second was coloured dark, a rugged stone, cracked
lengthwise and across. And the third piled above it was
flaming porphyry, red like the blood from a vein.

'Above this one was the angel of God, sitting on the
threshold, bright as a diamond.

'Up the three steps my master led me with goodwill and then
he said, "Beg humbly that he unlock the door."'[4]

Like this, the path man has to tread is not an easy progress. But he is
rising all the time and he rises on steps of his own past. He sees
reflected in them the image of himself, and he sees too the deep faults
in his nature, and the rough surface of his path through time. The last
step, tinged by his own blood, gives access to a higher dwelling, firm
and bright and leading higher still. But it is open only after a long
ascent, and to the human spirit that has worked faithfully, with love
for his comrades and leaders, and reverence for the laws which bind both
the world and him.

BOOKS FOR REFERENCE

John Grote, _Examination of Utilitarian Philosophy_.

Kant, _Principles of Politics_ (translated by Hastie and published by
Clark) contains his smaller works on Universal History, Perpetual Peace,
and the Principle of Progress. See also the _Essay on Herder_.

Comte's _Positive Polity_, vols. i. and ii, passim.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] 'usus et impigrae simul experientia mentis
paulatim docuit pedetemtim progredientes.'

[2] Comte, _Positive Polity_, ii 116.

[3] See Delisle Burns, _Morality of Nations_, and _The Unity of Western
Civilization_, passim.

[4] _Purgatorio_, ix. 94-108.

II

PROGRESS IN PREHISTORIC TIMES

R. R. MARETT

If I am unable to deliver this lecture in person, it will be because I
have to attend in Jersey to the excavation of a cave once occupied by
men of the Glacial Ep