Ideas have their intellectual climates, and I propose to show briefly in this Introduction that the intellectual climates of classical antiquity and the ensuing ages were not propitious to the birth of the doctrine of Progress.

It is not till the sixteenth century that the obstacles to its appearance definitely begin to be transcended and a favourable atmosphere to be gradually prepared.
[Footnote: The history of the idea of Progress has been treated briefly and partially by various French writers; e.g.Comte, Cours de philosophie positive, vi.

321 sqq.; Buchez, Introduction a la science de l'histoire, i.

99 sqq.

(ed.