fundamental physical data. I have been so
unjust to our own century that I have made no allusion to some of its
greatest scientific triumphs: its grand conceptions in natural history;
its discoveries in magnetism and electricity; its invention of the
beautiful art of photography; its applications of spectrum analysis; its
attempts to bring chemistry under the three laws of Avogadro, of Boyle
and Mariotte, and of Charles; its artificial production of organic
substances from inorganic material, of which the philosophical
consequences are of the utmost importance; its reconstruction of
physiology by laying the foundation of that science on chemistry; its
improvements and advances in topographical surveying and in the correct
representation of the surface of the globe. I have said nothing about
rifled-guns and armored ships, nor of the revolution that has been made
in the art of war; nothing of that gift to women, the sewing-machine;
nothing of the noble contentions and triumphs of the arts of peace--the
industrial exhibitions and world's fairs.

What a catalogue have we here, and yet how imperfect! It gives merely a
random glimpse at an ever-increasing intellectual commotion--a mention
of things as they casually present themselves to view. How striking
the contrast between this literary, this scientific activity, and the
stagnation of the middle ages!

The intellectual enlightenment that surrounds this activity has imparted
unnumbered blessings to the human race. In Russia it has emancipated a
vast serf-population; in America it has given freedom to four million
negro slaves. In place of the sparse dole of the monastery-gate, it has
organized charity and directed legislation to the poor. It has shown
medicine its true function, to prevent rather than to cure disease. In
statesmanship it has introduced scientific methods, displacing random
and empirical legislation by a laborious ascertainment of social facts
previous to the application of legal remedies. So conspicuous, so
impressive is the manner in which it is elevating men, that the hoary
nations of Asia seek to participate in the boon. Let us not forget that
our action on them must be attended by their reaction on us. If the
destruction of paganism was completed when all the gods were brought
to Rome and confronted there, now, when by our wonderful facilities of
locomotion strange nations and conflicting religions are brought into
common presence--the Mohammedan, the