And he comes nearer to the idea of Progress than any one before him; he is on the threshold.
For if we eliminate his astrological and Pythagorean speculations, and various theological parentheses which do not disturb his argument, his work announces a new view of history which is optimistic regarding man's career on earth, without any reference to his destinies in a future life.

And in this optimistic view there are three particular points to note, which were essential to the subsequent growth of the idea of Progress.

In the first place, the decisive rejection of the theory of degeneration, which had been a perpetual obstacle to the apprehension of that idea.

Secondly, the unreserved claim that his own age was fully equal, and in some respects superior, to the age of classical antiquity, in respect of science and the arts.

He leaves the ancients reverently on their pedestal, but he erects another pedestal for the moderns, and it is rather higher.