To return to the simpler life of the forests--or to any bygone stage--would be denaturer l'homme, it would be contrary to nature; and if he could do so, it would only be to recommence the career begun by his ancestors and pass again through the same successive phases of history.

[Footnote: Syst.soc.i.16, p.

190.] There was, indeed, one question which caused some embarrassment to believers in Progress.

The increase of wealth and luxury was evidently a salient feature in modern progressive states; and it was clear that there was an intimate connection between the growth of knowledge and the growth of commerce and industrial arts, and that the natural progress of these meant an ever-increasing accumulation of riches and the practice of more refined luxury.

The question, therefore, whether luxury is injurious to the general happiness occupied the attention of the philosophers.