Thesis: Progress is learning through past experience, in which people
             manage to ameliorate their social and intellectual circumstances, and this
             should be a continuous process in sustaining life in this world.
             Introduction: History as a subject is one that is extremely important
             to contemporary man. It is one through which he may learn about the
             successes and failures of people in the past. Undoubtedly, though all
             people have not experienced each other's history it must be said that they
             can at least learn through the records of it all that have been maintained.
             In some cases, accounts of individuals' lives have also been maintained
             because of their fame, uniqueness, etc. This is something that is highly
             advantageous. It must also be realized that an overwhelming majority of
             individual life experiences have not been recorded. However, there are few
             that have been recorded and can be used to expose what kind and the extent
             of progress they signify. The texts An American Childhood' by Annie
             Dillard, On Liberty' by Mill, and Consilience' by Wilson are all ones
             that may be used to expose the importance of learning through one's
             experience. These texts are considered to be useful ones for this purpose
             because of the fact that help one to understand how progress can or should
             Analysis: In An American Childhood' by Annie Dillard, the author
             writes about her experiences in during her childhood. She describes the way
             that she used to pass her time like an ordinary child. As a child she
             collected rocks and insects; made sharp pencil drawings; memorized faces
             for detective work, pitched a baseball, played with a microscope, etc.
             These were all ordinary things that most children do in their lives. But
             the difference that Dillard draws up between her childhood and the children
             is tha...