surface.

The whole problem of the nature of education of course resolves
itself, from this point of view, into the question whether progress is
something inherent in nature, or is something controlled by man. Or if
we cannot make so sharp a contrast between nature and will, shall we
say that progress is in the main and in all essential ways one or the
other? Does conscious effort, the having of ideals, exert any profound
effect upon the history of spirit? Does it accelerate, give direction,
provide energy? Is the course of history inevitable or is the making
of it in our hands? We can see what, in a general way, so far as
regards the transformation of the fundamental motives of life, the
order of development has been--how the original and basic desires or
instincts have become merged and confused in the more general desires
and moods, how the motive of power has emerged, finding so varied
expression as we see in the whole movement of art and play in the
world, how out of these motives of art and play more controlled
enthusiasms have arisen. But the part in this movement played by
conscious direction does not thus far appear to have been great. A
movement of and within consciousness it has been, and no mere
biological or physical development, but when we speak of conscious
will or any ideals controlling the course of spirit in essential ways,
we find as yet only a beginning. And yet, this does not indicate that
in the future conscious direction may not be even the greatest factor
in evolution. It is difficult to see how we can _know_ with certainty
that we have such powers; but to refrain from acting as though we had
is also difficult, and indeed impossible.

As a working hypothesis, at least, we seem to be allowed to assume
that much will depend, in the future, upon the extent to which
conscious factors are brought to bear upon the world's progress as a
whole, upon the form in which the world-idea shapes itself, and the
power which is put behind that world idea by the educational forces of
the world. The world appears now to stand balanced at a critical
moment, its future depending upon whether old ideals and primitive
emotions shall prevail, or whether a new spirit which is perhaps after
all but a sense of direction growing out of the old order shall become
the dominating influences. Whether the consciousness of nations shall
be creative and progressive seems to depend now upon the extent to
which the whole life of