A VISION OF THE FUTURE
_BY THE SAME AUTHOR._
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Scientific Meliorism and the Evolution of Happiness.
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KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH & CO., LONDON.
Crown 8vo, 207 pp., cheap edition 6_d._
Margaret Dunmore or A Socialist Home.
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“Decidedly entertaining.”—_Manchester Examiner._
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A VISION OF THE FUTURE
BASED ON
THE APPLICATION OF ETHICAL PRINCIPLES
By
JANE HUME CLAPPERTON
AUTHOR OF “SCIENTIFIC MELIORISM”, “MARGARET DUNMORE”, ETC.
“_HITCH YOUR WAGON TO A STAR_”
—_Emerson._
LONDON
SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO., LIMITED
PATERNOSTER SQUARE
1904
TO MY FRIEND
GEORGE ARTHUR GASKELL
To the Reader
Social Problems are the chief interest and study of my life.
In 1885 I published in London a work entitled _Scientific Meliorism and
the Evolution of Happiness_.
The world of thought has acquired new knowledge since then; and many
social changes have occurred. The present volume is not a replica of
that work, although, as before, my aim has been to gather together the
currents of meliorism pursuing diverse courses throughout society and to
throw upon these the light of fresh knowledge gained by investigators of
economic and social science; and, above all, the light emanating from
philosophic thinkers who recognize that the path of improved outward
conditions, and the path of inward progress for man, lie parallel to
each other. It is my belief that in this dawning epoch of conscious
evolution man may, if he so chooses, push forward the actual life of
to-day and merge it into the ideal life of to-morrow.
There has recently occurred a widespread commemoration of the birth of
that pure-souled American, who was pre-eminently a teacher of the ideal
life. This volume, I hope, will be read in America, and, to the memory
of Emerson I tender homage, while adopting his phrase, “_Hitch Your
Wagon to a Star_,” as the motto of my book.
The toil of man’s daily life alas! is indeed as the straining and
jolting of a lumbering wagon,—it grovels, it wallows, it drags wearily,
and the soul of the wagoner soars not.
But there are few thinkers who confront the great social question of the
hour as not the rescue of the submerged tenth merely, not the elevation
of the masses only, but the uplifting of _all Humanity_ to higher levels
in the scale of being.
When the great process of social reform is animated and ruled by that
lofty aspiration, the lumbering wagon of toil will become a triumphal
chariot of moral and spiritual progress.
JANE HUME CLAPPERTON.
Contents
CHAP. PAGE
Initial Chapter—HAPPINESS 1
Part I—ECONOMICS IN MODERN LIFE
I THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 23
II ORGANIZED INDUSTRY 51