Will man then, the critic may ask incredulously, have really been perfected in a century? Decidedly not. But unless we doubt the evidence which shows that improved institutions not only arise out of improved popular character, but also help to promote it, we cannot resist the inference that the removal of many causes of degradation must bring us nearer to perfection, to which the moral evolution of the race is slowly proceeding. There is nothing Utopian in the belief that honesty, truthfulness, respect for the rights of others, will be fostered by the increased intelligence of the new age; and from the moment when this intelligence, disseminated throughout all society, begins to make the moral improvement of the race a prime object in every social reform, in every piece of legislation (emancipating as well as restrictive) we have a right to expect the progress of morality to receive a marked impetus. "Nature, careless of the single life," will be assisted in the perfecting of the moral type, and the dishonest man, the liar, the sensualist, and the man too stupid to be unselfish, will become with every decade less fit for survival, because the same unwisdom which is at the bottom of his faults will handicap him in the battle of life, will hinder him in the competition for the right to perpetuate his characteristics in children born of his loins. It is only those who conceive of the race as capable of remaining stationary, or moving backward, in morals, while in every other respect it moves forward with constantly-increasing momentum, who imagine that cunning and unscrupulousness are likely to be fostered by enlarged civilisation. So long as we allow the world to be exploited for the selfish advantage of a handful of millionaires, no doubt these characteristics will continue at a premium. But it is impossible to believe that the irresistible power of the mass of humanity will submit in perpetuity to be thus made the tools of a minority. If the "ruling" classes wished to maintain that status they should have kept the people from the schoolroom. Numbers must inevitably prevail, and the world will have reorganised itself in ways which, if we could foresee them in their entirety, would suggest an almost unthinkable perfection. INDEX A Actor, the (his art), 61 Agriculture, economies in, 216 ----, scientific development of, 127 Alcohol, abandonment of, 36 ---- and the law, 242 ---- and crime, 244 Alphabet, the, 42 Anæsthetics, 120 Animal food, abandonment of, 34, 126 Antisepsis and asepsis, 10 Arboriculture, 217 Architecture, 194 Argon, 11, 290 Art, A.D. 2000, 196 Atheism, 177 B Bacillary diseases, destruction of, 123 Ballot, the (its inadequacy), 262 Bathing, A.D. 2000, 305 Bedroom, the, A.D. 2000, 25 Bellamy, Edward, 5 Bible, inspiration of the, 176 Birth-rate, the (its artificial restriction), 14 Bread, wholemeal, 34 Buildings, high, 17 C