Let us briefly examine the bearing of the view that representative machinery is the agent of progress on previous theories of social progress.

+Professor Huxley.+—­No one has more clearly laid down the conditions of social progress than the late Professor Huxley in his essay on Evolution and Ethics.  The gradual strengthening of the social bond by the practise of self-restraint in the interests of society he called the ethical process, and he showed that social progress means a checking of the cosmic process at every step and the substitution of this ethical process.  This action he compares to that of a gardener in clearing a patch of waste ground.  If he relaxes his efforts to maintain the state of art within the garden, weeds will overrun it and the state of nature will return.  So the human race is doomed to a constant struggle to maintain the state of art of an organized polity in opposition to the state of nature; to substitute as far as possible social progress for cosmic evolution.  He says:—­

Let us understand, once for all, that the ethical progress of society depends, not on imitating the cosmic process, still less in running away from it, but in combating it.  It may seem an audacious proposal thus to pit the microcosm against the macrocosm, and to set man to subdue nature to his higher ends; but I venture to think that the great intellectual difference between the ancient times with which we have been occupied and our day, lies in the solid foundation we have acquired for the hope that such an enterprise may meet with a certain measure of success....[10]

Moreover, the cosmic nature born with us, and to a large extent necessary for our maintenance, is the outcome of millions of years of severe training, and it would be folly to imagine that a few centuries will suffice to subdue its masterfulness to purely ethical ends.  Ethical nature may count upon having to reckon with a tenacious and powerful enemy as long as the world lasts.  But, on the other hand, I see no limit to the extent to which intelligence and will, guided by sound principles of investigation, and organized in common effort, may modify the conditions of existence for a period longer than that now covered by history.  And much may be done to change the nature of man himself.  The intelligence which has converted the brother of the wolf into the faithful guardian of the flock ought to be able to do something towards curbing the instincts of savagery in civilized men.[11]

But Huxley never realized that the real cause of the better prospects of success in modern as contrasted with ancient times is the discovery of representative machinery.  “The business,” he declared, “of the sovereign authority—­which is, or ought to be, simply a delegation of the people appointed to act for its good—­appears to me to be not only to enforce the renunciation of the anti-social desires, but wherever it may be necessary to promote the satisfaction of those which are conducive to progress."[12] There is no conception here of the principles of organization and responsible leadership, so necessary in constituting this “delegation.”