Progr. de l’'Esp. Hum., 9 époque
36. Pol. Just. 2 éd. Book VIII, chap. vin; vol. IE, pp. 506-7.
37. Priestley développe longuement la théorie du progrès indéfini au début de l'Essay de 1768 : Man derives two capital advantages from the superiority of his intellectual powers. The first is, that, as an individual, he possesses à certain comprehension of mind, whereby he contemplates and enjoys the past and the future, as well as the present. This comprehension is enlarged with the experience of every day; and by this means the happiness of man, as he advances in intellect, is continually less dependent on temporary cireumstances 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 age greatly superior to mankind in a former age, the individuals being 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 ïts 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 init, and will grow daily more happy, each in himself, and more able (and, I believe, more disposed) 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. Extrayagant as some may suppose these views to be, I think I 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, powers and expectations of man, strikingly verified in the events of the present times, with notes and illustrations by the Editor, London (1794), note A. — Leslie Stephen (English Thought, etc., vol. If, p. 256) ne semble pas voir que Priestley copie presque Hartley.
38. Manual of Political Economy; Bowring, vol. II, pp. 38-39. 39. Moral and Political Philosophy, Book VI, chap. xt, $ 6. 40. Pol. Just., Book VIIL, chap. vur, (2e éd. vol. IT, p. 493 sqq.).
M1. Pol. Just., 2 éd., vol. I, p. 481: Leisure will be multiplied; and the leisure of a cultivated understanding is the precise period in which great designs, designs the tendency of which is to secure applause and esteem, are conceived. — ÆEnquirer, of Riches and Poverty, p. 167: Is there not a state of society practicable, in which leisure shall be made the inheritance of every one of its members? — Of Avarice and Profusion: If the labour necessarily required to produce them were equitably divided among all, each man's share of labour would be light, and his portion of leisure would be ample. There was a time, when this leisure would have been of small comparative value. It is to be hoped that the time will come, when it will be applied to the most important purposes. — V. encore, Pol. Just., Book VIII, chap. vu : The object in the present state of society is to multiply labour; in another state it will be to simplify it. — There will be a division of labour, if we compare the society in question with the state of the solitaire and the savage, but it will produce an extensive simplification of labour, if we compareit with that to which we are at present accustomed in civilised Europe. — Eden (State ofthe Poor, vol. I, pp. 435 sqq.) s'inspire visiblement de Godwin, tout en faisant des réserves sur le côté utopique de sa doctrine.
— De même, lord Lauderdale, dans an Inquiry into the nature and origin of public wealth, and into the means and causes of ils increase, 1804. V. le chapitre qu’il consacre à démontrer que le progrès de l’in-
dustrie est défini par la substitution du capital au travail, et non pas par le progrès de la division du travail. Lauderdale avait été un des chefs de la faction jacobine. 4
42. Holyoaké, Sixty years of an agilalor’s life, vol. I, p. 116. Sur les idées de Holcroft, v. ses romans philosophiques, Anna Saint-lves, 1792; Hugh Trevor,1194-1797, et Memoirs of the late Thomas Holcroft, written by himself, and continued to the time of his death, from his diary, notes, and other papers, London, 1816 (par W. Hazlitt), en particulier Book VI, chap. 1 and w; vol. IL, pp. 103 sqq. — Ces idées sont identiques aux idées de Godwin. — Pourrait-on admettre que Holcroft ait été linspirateur de Godwin lui-même? Sur les relations de Holcroft avec Godwin, sur l'influence exercée par Holcroft sur Godwin, v. Kegan Paul, William Godwin, his life and friends, passim. ;
43. Owen paraît même avoir emprunté à Godwin l'évaluation du temps de travail quotidien (une demi-heure), que chacun devra donner, pour que tous soient nourris, dans le « nouveau monde moral ».
