is strikingly illustrated by the fact
that admiration for them has broken down the iron barriers of Moslem
conservatism, so that their introduction has become a burning question
in Turkey and Persia; while the very unrest, the impatience of
European or American control, in India, Egypt, or the Philippines,
takes the form of demanding that the government be assimilated more
closely to what it is in England or the United States. The deeds and
works of any great statesman, the preachings of any great ethical,
social, or political teacher, now find echoes in both hemispheres and
in every continent. From a new discovery in science to a new method of
combating or applying Socialism, there is no movement of note which
can take place in any part of the globe without powerfully affecting
masses of people in Europe, America, and Australia, in Asia and
Africa. For weal or for woe, the peoples of mankind are knit together
far closer than ever before.

So much for the geographical side of the expansion of modern
civilization. But only a few of the many and intense activities of
modern civilization have found their expression on this side. The
movement has been just as striking in its conquest over natural
forces, in its searching inquiry into and about the soul of things.

The conquest over Nature has included an extraordinary increase in
every form of knowledge of the world we live in, and also an
extraordinary increase in the power of utilizing the forces of
Nature. In both directions the advance has been very great during the
past four or five centuries, and in both directions it has gone on
with ever-increasing rapidity during the last century. After the great
age of Rome had passed, the boundaries of knowledge shrank, and in
many cases it was not until well-nigh our own times that her domain
was once again pushed beyond the ancient landmarks. About the year 150
A.D., Ptolemy, the geographer, published his map of central Africa and
the sources of the Nile, and this map was more accurate than any which
we had as late as 1850 A.D. More was known of physical science, and
more of the truth about the physical world was guessed at, in the days
of Pliny, than was known or guessed until the modern movement began.
The case was the same as regards military science. At the close of the
Middle Ages the weapons were what they had always been--sword, shield,
bow, spear; and any improvement in them was more than offset by the
loss in knowle