It may save misunderstanding if a word or so be said here of the aim
and scope of this book. It is written in relation to a previous work,
_Anticipations_, [Footnote: Published by Harper Bros.] and together with
that and a small pamphlet, “The Discovery of the Future,” [Footnote:
Nature, vol. lxv. (1901-2), p. 326, and reprinted in the Smithsonian
Report for 1902] presents a general theory of social development and of
social and political conduct. It is an attempt to deal with social and
political questions in a new way and from a new starting-point, viewing
the whole social and political world as aspects of one universal
evolving scheme, and placing all social and political activities in a
defined relation to that; and to this general method and trend it is
that the attention of the reader is especially directed. The two
books and the pamphlet together are to be regarded as an essay in
presentation. It is a work that the writer admits he has undertaken
primarily for his own mental comfort. He is remarkably not qualified to
assume an authoritative tone in these matters, and he is acutely aware
of the many defects in detailed knowledge, in temper, and in training
these papers collectively display. He is aware that at such points,
for example, as the reference to authorities in the chapter on the
biological problem, and to books in the educational chapter, the lacunar
quality of his reading and knowledge is only too evident; to fill in
and complete his design--notably in the fourth paper--he has had quite
frankly to jerry-build here and there. Nevertheless, he ventures to
publish this book. There are phases in the development of every science
when an incautious outsider may think himself almost necessary, when
sketchiness ceases to be a sin, when the mere facts of irresponsibility
and an untrained interest may permit a freshness, a freedom of mental
gesture that would be inconvenient and compromising for the specialist;
and such a phase, it is submitted, has been reached in this field of
speculation. Moreover, the work attempted is not so much special
and technical as a work of reconciliation, the suggestion of broad
generalizations upon which divergent specialists may meet, a business
for non-technical expression, and in which a man who knows a little of
biology, a little of physical science, and a little in a practical way
of social stratification, who has concerned himself with education and
aspired to creative art, may claim in his very amateurishness a special
qualification. And in addition, it is particularly a business for some
irresponsible writer, outside the complications of practical politics,
some man who, politically, “doesn’t matter,” to provide the first
tentatives of a political doctrine that shall be equally available for
application in the British Empire and in the United States. To that we
must come, unless our talk of co-operation, of reunion, is no more than
sentimental dreaming. We have to get into line, and that we cannot do
while over here and over there men hold themselves bound by old party
formulae, by loyalties and institutions, that are becoming, that
have become, provincial in proportion to our new and wider needs.
My instances are commonly British, but all the broad project of this
book--the discussion of the quality of the average birth and of
the average home, the educational scheme, the suggestions for the
organization of literature and a common language, the criticism of
polling and the jury system, and the ideal of a Republic with an
apparatus of honour--is, I submit, addressed to, and could be adopted
by, any English-reading and English-speaking man. No doubt the spirit
of the inquiry is more British than American, that the abandonment of
Rousseau and anarchic democracy is more complete than American thought
is yet prepared for, but that is a difference not of quality but of
degree. And even the appendix, which at a hasty glance may seem to be
no more than the discussion of British parochial boundaries, does indeed
develop principles of primary importance in the fundamental schism of
American politics between the local State government and the central
power. So much of apology and explanation I owe to the reader, to the
contemporary specialist, and to myself.
These papers were first published in the British _Fortnightly Review_
and in the American _Cosmopolitan_. In the latter periodical they were,
for the most part, printed from uncorrected proofs set up from an
early version. This periodical publication produced a considerable
correspondence, which has been of very great service in the final
revision. These papers have indeed been honoured by letters from men
and women of almost every profession, and by a really very considerable
amount of genuine criticism in the British press. Nothing, I think,
could witness more effectually to the demand for such discussions
of general principle, to the need felt for some nuclear matter to
crystallize upon at the present time, however poor its quality, than
this fact. Here I can only thank the writers collectively, and call
their attention to the more practical gratitude of my frequently
modified text.
I would, however, like to express my especial indebtedness to my
friend, Mr. Graham Wallas, who generously toiled through the whole of
my typewritten copy, and gave me much valuable advice, and to Mr. C. G.
Stuart Menteath for some valuable references.