The idea of progress : an inquiry into its origin and growth / by J.B. Bury.

  • J. B. Bury
Date:
1920
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The idea of progress : an inquiry into its origin and growth / by J.B. Bury. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    entirely the doctrine of a Golden Age and a subsequent degeneration, which was manifestly in¬ compatible with their theory that the world was mechanically formed from atoms without the in¬ tervention of a Deity. For them, the earliest condition of men resembled that of the beasts, and from this primitive and miserable condition they laboriously reached the existing state of civilisation, not by external guidance or as a consequence of some initial design, but simply by the exercise of human intelligence throughout a long period.1 The gradual amelioration of their existence was marked by the discovery of fire and the use of metals, the invention of language, the invention of weaving, the growth of arts and industries, navigation, the development of family life, the establishment of social order by means of kings, magistrates, laws, the foundation of cities. The last great step in the amelioration of life, according to Lucretius, was the illuminating philosophy of Epicurus, who dispelled the fear of invisible powers and guided man from intellectual darkness to light. But Lucretius and the school to which he be¬ longed did not look forward to a steady and continuous process of further amelioration in the future. They believed that a time would come when the universe would fall into ruins,2 but the intervening period did not interest them. Like 1 Lucretius v. 1448 sqq. (where the word progress is pronounced): Usus et impigrae simul experientia mentis Paulatim docuit pedetemtim progredientis. Sic unum quicquid paulatim protrahit aetas In medium ratioque in luminis erigit oras. Namque alid ex alio clarescere et ordine debet Artibus, ad summum donee uenere cacumen. 2 n. 95-
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