PROGRESS is born of freedom, of the untrammeled spirit of inquiry and adventure. Oliver Wendell Holmes gave eloquent utterance to this thought in these words:—
Build thee more stately mansions. O my soul.
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobles than the last.
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free.
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea.
An infinite force impels this progress. It is the divine law of perfection. It pays no homage to human limitation. It laughs at opposition, speculation, formula, or creed, for it dwells above the clouds, beyond the mists of uncertainty, in the realm of infallible Truth and real power. As progress is revealed, it may be questioned, challenged, criticised, but it is found that its credentials are not in words but in works, not in dogma but in life and action. Its beneficent ministry is its unwritten vindication.
