12 JUNE 1920, Page 16

THE IDEA OF PROGRESS.

[To THE EDITOR or THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Is it not a remarkable tribute to the continued improve- ment in the conditions of life which characterized the nine- teenth century that, in popular speech, in your article last week, and apparently in the Dean of St. Paul's lecture, the word " progress " is actually used as if it were synonymous with " improvement "? And yet it is nothing of the sort. Progress is simply going forward, and the going forward may be either np or down, to heaven or to another place.—I am, Sir, &e.,