"That which lies before the human race is a constant struggle to maintain and improve, in opposition to the State of Nature, the State of Art of an organized polity; in which, and by which, man may develop a worthy civilization, capable of maintaining and constantly improving itself, until the evolution of our globe shall have entered so far upon its downward course that the cosmic process resumes its sway; and, once more, the State of Nature prevails over the surface of our planet."[266:27]
FOOTNOTES:
[223:1] Preliminary Note.—By naturalism is meant that system of philosophy which defines the universe in the terms of natural science. In its dogmatic phase, wherein it maintains that being is corporeal, it is called materialism. In its critical phase, wherein it makes the general assertion that the natural sciences constitute the only possible knowledge, whatever be the nature of reality itself, it is called positivism, agnosticism, or simply naturalism.
[226:2] Lucretius: De Rerum Natura, Bk. II, lines 569-580. Translation by Munro.
[229:3] The reader will find an interesting account of these opposing views in Locke's chapter on Space, in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding.
[230:4] Descartes distinguished his theory from that of Democritus in the Principles of Philosophy, Part IV, § ccii.
[231:5] Pearson: Grammar of Science, pp. 259-260. Cf. ibid., Chap. VII, entire.
[232:6] Quoted in Ueberweg: History of Philosophy, II, p. 124.
[233:7] Quoted from the Opticks of Newton by James Ward, in his Naturalism and Agnosticism, I, p. 43.