ascendency.

_Progress Is an Essential Characteristic of Civilization_.--The goal is
never reached, the victory is never finally achieved. Man must move
on, ever on. Intellect must develop, morals improve, liberty increase,
social order be perfected, and social growth continue. There must be
no halting on the road; the nation that hesitates is lost. Progress in
general is marked by the development of the individual, on the one
hand, and that of society, on the other. In well-ordered society these
two ideas are balanced; they seek an equilibrium. Excessive
individualism leads to anarchy and destruction; excessive socialism
blights and stagnates individual activity and independence and retards
progress. It must be admitted here as elsewhere that the individual
culture and the individual life are, after all, the highest aims. But
how can these be obtained in {15} modern life without social progress?
How can there be freedom of action for the development of the
individual powers without social expansion? Truly, the social and the
individual life are complementary elements of progress.

_Diversity Is Necessary to Progress_.--If progress is an essential
characteristic of modern civilization, it may be said that diversity is
essential to progress. There is much said about equality and
fraternity. It depends on what is meant by the terms as to whether
these are good sayings or not. If equality means uniformity, by it man
is easily reduced to a state of stagnation. Diversity of life exists
everywhere in progressive nature, where plants or animals move forward
in the scale of existence. Man is not an exception to the rule,
notwithstanding his strong will force. Men differ in strength, in
moral and intellectual capacity, and in co-operating ability. Hence
they must occupy different stations in life. And the quality and
quantity of progress are to be estimated in different nations according
to the diversity of life to be observed among individuals and groups.

_What Is the Goal of Civilized Man?_--And it may be well to ask, as
civilization is progressive: What is our aim in life from our own
standpoint? For what do men strive? What is the ultimate of life?
What is the best for which humanity can live? If it were merely to
obtain food and clothes and nothing more, the question could be easily
answered. If it were merely to train a man to be a monk, that he might
spend his time in prayer and supplication for a