Progr. de VEsp. Hum., 9 e époque

36. Pol. Just. 2 e éd. Book VIII, chap. vm ; vol. II, pp. 506-7.

37. Priestley développe longuement la théorie du progrès indéfini au début de Y Essay de 1768 : Man dérives two capital advantages from the superiority of his intellectual powers. The first is, that, as an individual, he possesses a certain compréhension of mind, whereby he contemplâtes and enjoys the past and the future, as well as the présent. This compréhension is enlarged with the expérience of every day; and by this means the happinoss of man, as he advanecs in intellect, is continually less dépendent on temporary circumstances and sensations. — The neat advantage resulting from the same principle, and which is, in many respects, both the cause and effect of the former, is, that the human species itself is capable of a similar and unbounded improvement ; whereby mankind is in

a later âge greatly superior to mankind in a former âge, the individuals beiag taken at the same time of life... — Knowledge, as lord Bacon observes, being power, the human powers will in fact, be enlarged ; nature, including both its materials and its laws, will be more at our command ; men will make their situation in this world abundantly more easy and comfortable; they will probably prolong their existence in it, and will grow daily more happy, each in himself, and more able (and, I believe, more disposée!) to communicate happiness to others. Thus, whatever was the beginning of this world, the end will be glorious and paradisiacal, beyond what our imaginations can now conceive. Extravagant as some may suppose thèse views to be, I thinkl could show them to be fairly suggested by the true theory of human nature, and to arise from the natural course of human affairs. — (Paradisiacal. Cf. Hartley, Part I, Prop. XIV, Cor. 9). — Priestley reconnaît expressément avoir emprunté à Hartley la théorie du progrès, dans The conclusion of the late Dr Hartley' s Observations on the nature, poivers and expectations of man, strikingly verified in the events of the présent Unies, with notes and illustrations by the Editor, London (1"94), note A. — Leslie Stephen {English Ttiought, etc., vol. II, p. 256) ne semble pas voir que Priestley copie presque Hartley.

38. Manual ofPolitical Economy; Bowring, vol. III, pp. 38-39.