CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE

Know that the science of History is noble in
its conception, abounding in instruction, and
exalted in its aim.—IBN KHALDUN

The survey of Human History that we set out to make in
this brief volume is now at an end without being complete,
In the Approach we visualised that ' There is such a phe-
nomenon as Progress; call it culture, civilisation, or by any
other name/ We understood this to mean that 'there
may be setbacks here and there, or retrogression now and
again, in the long course of human history. But with all
these, Man has evolved out of the brute-creation. He has
risen above the mere animal. He has ever toiled .to make
his lot better than his inheritance in every age. And what-
ever may be his ultimate Destiny, an eternal urge keeps
him striving .after Utopias. The Vision beckons and re-
cedes before our faltering steps. Yet Faith keeps us stead-
fast on the thorny upward path.' ' This/ we characterised,
' is one of the fundamental human traits which are univer-
sally true/

Beginning with the First Steps, some 50,000 years or so
ago, we have come down the millennia, to the World To-day.
Is this long procession of the human race without any mean-
ing or significance for us ? There is at least one -fact in aD
this which no one can deny, namely, ' While it took millions