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    8 THE OPINIONS OF JOHN STUART MILL.

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    , , Whe There Ther Is It No Be Name At O...

    more fit for women to -work in , owing to the increased security to and property guaranteed by our modern civilization .

    person " . Whatever may foe the other changes which the economy of society is destined to undergothere is one actually in progress concerning

    which there can foe no dispute , . In the leading countries of the world , and in all others as they come within the influence of those leading

    countries , there is at least one progressive movement which continues with little interruption from year to year and from generation to

    generation—a progress in wealth ; an advancement in what is called material prosperity . All the nations which we are accustomed to

    call civilized , increase gradually in production and in population ; and there is no reason to doufot , that not only these nations will for

    some time continue so to increase , font that most of the other nations of the worldincluding some not yet foundedwill successively enter

    upon the same , career . It will , therefore , , foe our first ofoject to examine the nature and consequences of this progressive change ;

    the elements which constitute it , and the effects it produces on the various economical facts of which we have foeen tracing the laws , and

    especially on wages , profits , rents , value , and prices . " Of the features which characterize this progressive economical

    movement of civilized nations , that which first excites attention , through its intimate connexion with the phenomena of production ,

    is the perpetual and , so far as human foresight can extend , the unlimited growth of man ' s power over nature . Our knowledge of the

    properties and laws of physical ofojects shows no sign of approaching its ultimate fooundaries ; it is advancing now rapidly , and in a

    greater number of directions at once than in any previous age or generationand affording such frequent glimpses of unexplored fields

    foeyond , as , to justify the foelief that our acquaintance with nature is still almost in its infancy . This increasing physical knowledge is

    now , too , more rapidly than at any former period , converted foy practical ingenuity into physical power . The most marvellous of

    modern inventions , one which realizes the imaginary feats of the ician—not metaphoricallyfout literallythe electro-magnetic

    telemag , , graph—sprang into existence fout a few years after the estafolishment of the scientific theory which it realizes and exemplifies . Lastly ,

    the manual part of these great scientific _ojDerations is now never wanting to the intellectual ; there is no difficulty in finding or

    " forming , in a sufficient number of the working hands of the community , the skill requisite for executing the most delicate processes

    of the application of science to practical uses . From this union of conditionsit is impossible not to look forward to a vast

    multiplication and , long succession of contrivances for encouraging labor and increasing its produce ; and to an ever wider diffusion of the use

    and benefit of those contrivances . Another change , which has always hitherto characterizedand will assuredly continue to characterize , the

    progress of civilized society , , is a continual increase of the security of

    person and property . The people of every country in Europe , the

    8 The Opinions Of John Stuart Mill.

    8 THE OPINIONS OF JOHN STUART MILL .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Sept. 1, 1860, page 8, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01091860/page/8/