hope to achieve. The people of the United States

became rich not only because they were skilful, but

because they were so very rich to begin with. Others

might prove just as clever, but cleverness is not

enough.

 As to pessimism and optimism, we seem always

to be headed for one extreme or the other, often at

the same time, though we never seem to reach either

utopia or total disaster. Will present rates of growth

persist for another hundred years, and yet another?

There is no way to tell, but we cannot blankly presume

that they will. Already the whole idea of economic

growth has come to be questioned on many grounds;

its consequences have not all been good. Perhaps with

time the whole philosophy of growth will change, and the

idea of progress, if it survives, may take on a different

guise.