optat sibi hanc
libertatem, volendi quae velit, sed potius volendi optima.--LEIBNIZ,
_De Fato_. TRENDELENBURG, _Beitraege zur Philosophie_, ii. 190.

[35] All the world is, by the very law of its creation, in
eternal progress; and the cause of all the evils of the world may be
traced to that natural, but most deadly error of human indolence and
corruption, that our business is to preserve and not to
improve.--ARNOLD, _Life_, i. 259. In whatever state of knowledge we
may conceive man to be placed, his progress towards a yet higher state
need never fear a check, but must continue till the last existence of
society.--HERSCHEL, _Prel. Dis._, 360. It is in the development of
thought as in every other development; the present suffers from the
past, and the future struggles hard in escaping from the
present.--MAX MUeLLER, _Science of Thought_, 617. Most of the great
positive evils of the world are in themselves removable, and will, if
human affairs continue to improve, be in the end reduced within narrow
limits. Poverty in any sense implying suffering may be completely
extinguished by the wisdom of society combined with the good sense and
providence of individuals.--All the grand sources, in short, of human
suffering are in a great degree, many of them almost entirely,
conquerable by human care and effort.--J. S. MILL, _Utilitarianism_,
21, 22. The ultimate standard of worth is personal worth, and the only
progress that is worth striving after, the only acquisition that is
truly good and enduring, is the growth of the soul.--BIXBY, _Crisis of
Morals_, 210. La science, et l'industrie qu'elle produit, ont, parmi
tous les autres enfants du genie de l'homme, ce privilege particulier,
que leur vol non-seulement ne peut pas s'interrompre, mais qu'il
s'accelere sans cesse.--CUVIER, _Discours sur la Marche des Sciences_,
24 Avril, 1816. Aucune idee parmi celles qui se referent a l'ordre des
faits naturels, ne tient de plus pres a la famille des idees
religieuses que l'idee du progres, et n'est plus propre a devenir le
principe d'une sorte de foi religieuse pour ceux qui n'en ont pas
d'autres. Elle a, comme la foi religieuse, la vertu de relever les
ames et les caracteres.--COURNOT, _Marche des Idees_, ii. 425. Dans le
spectacle de l'humanite errante, souffrante et travaillant toujours a
mieux voir, a mieux penser, a mieux agir, a diminuer l'infirmite de
l'etre humain, a apaiser l'inquietude de son coeur, la science
decouvre une dire