Progress, what is it? "In effect," said Yellowly, "the suiting and smoothing of life's way to the great and struggling masses."—Author, chap. i.
What plan should I adopt with my proposed retrospective history? How should I best record the vast progress effected by our busy humanity in the past thousand years? It occurred to me that I would, first of all, lay before the reader a few special causes which markedly contributed to that wonderful progress. They were causes which, in most cases, began to come into operation about the time my retrospect begins, namely towards the end of the nineteenth and the opening of the twentieth century. I attach therefore great importance to that particular time; and no doubt that is why it is, curiously enough, always somehow so much more in my mind than any other of my retrospect. Some of these causes—as, for instance, the resolution of the State to see to the universal education of the people; the inclusion, also, of technical and scientific education; the complete removal, by a method presently to be noticed, of the parliamentary block of public business; the abolition of international
