mcgee] the trend of human progress 439
tries is egoistic, that of the pleasures altruistic. Despite this primary distinction (pertaining especially to the progenitors, among whom pleasures must have been far subordinate), indus- tries acquired a collective character even among the brutes, for, under the law of survival, maintenance of self grows into mainte- nance of kind ; while in the realm of humanity it is the tendency of industries, vitalized as they are at every stage by the pleasures of life, to extend from self to family, thence to tube and nation and race, and finally to the sum of human kind as successively larger and larger groups are united by common interests, common sympathies, and common knowledge. The key-note of industrial activity is hunger for material things ; not necessarily better things, save as the instinct is brightened by the pleasure-instinct, yet for things good enough to maintain life and comfort. The early method is half-desperate essay or experiment, which guides fu- ture essay by its success or failure ; a later method, pursued alike by beasts and lower men, is more hopeful essay guided by experience of others, and this matures in that imitation so characteristic of early culture and so influential in harmonizing tribe with tribe and nation with nation ; the final method is con- fident essay under the guidance of both individual and collective experience (that is, the sum of available knowledge) along the lines involved — and this matures in invention, the highest expression of industrial activity. Hence, at first egoistic and centripetal, the industries of humanity tend constantly to pass under the domain of knowledge, to share its cumulative growth, and in time to become pleasurably altruistic and centrifugal ; and, in so far as they are controlled by knowledge, the industries become collec- tive bonds, uniting men and nations, extending throughout the world, and gaining strength from generation to generation with the growth of human faculty.
So the function of industry is the maintenance of individual and collective life ; its quality is first intensive, then extensive, and at last comprehensive; and its effect is to strengthen faculty
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