iters of 1815 did not sufficiently apprehend the meaning of
the French Revolution. The wars of Napoleon had made them forget
it; his power had seemed so much more formidable and positive
that the deeper forces which had brought about the events of the
last decade of the eighteenth century were ignored. But they
still continued profoundly active, and were destined ere long
to announce themselves anew. They were in truth the generative
forces of the nineteenth century.

They have not yet spent themselves; but as we look back upon
the events of the past eighty or ninety years, we perceive what
vast differences there are between what we were in Napoleon's day
and what we are now. A long period of intrigue and misrule, of
wars and revolutions, has been followed by material, mental and
social changes affecting every class of the people, and especially
that class which had hitherto been almost entirely unconsidered.
The wars of this century have been of another character than
those of the past; they have not involved basic principles of
human association, but have been the result of attempts to gain
comparatively trifling political advantages, or else were the
almost inevitable consequence of adjustments of national relations.
Several small new kingdoms have appeared; but their presence
has not essentially altered the political aspect of Europe. It
is the conquests of mind that have been, in this century, far
more important than the struggles of arms. Steam, as applied
to locomotion on sea and land, and to manufactures, has brought
about modifications in social and industrial conditions that
cannot be exaggerated. Steamboats and railroads have not only
given a different face to commerce and industry, but they have
united the world in bonds of mutual knowledge and sympathy, which
cannot fail to profoundly affect the political relations of mankind.
Isolation is ignorance; as soon as men begin to discover, by actual
intercourse, the similarities and dissimilarities of their several
conditions, these will begin to show improvements. To be assured
that people in one part of the world are better off than those in
another, will tend inevitably to bring about ameliorations for
the latter. The domain of evil will be continually restricted,
and that of good enlarged. In the dissemination of intelligence
and the spread of sympathy, the telegraph, and other applications
of electricity, have enormously aided the work of steam. Every
ind