600 THE FUTURE. 



standing; the extraordinary disproportion which there is 

 between his natural strength and the powers of his mind, and 

 the force he derives from them." Finally, he concludes that 

 science would not only " make our lives more agreeable, but 

 better ; and that a rational being is bound by every motive of 

 interest and duty, to direct his mind towards pursuits which 

 are found to be the sure path of virtue as well as of happi- 



ness." 



We are in reality but on the threshold of civilization. Far 

 from showing any indication of having come to an end, the 

 tendency to improvement seems latterly to have proceeded 

 with augmented impetus and accelerated rapidity. Why, 

 then, should we suppose that it must now cease ? Man has 

 surely not reached the limits of his intellectual development, 

 and it is certain that he has not exhausted the infinite capa- 

 bilities of nature. There are many things which are not as 

 yet dreamt of in our philosophy ; many discoveries which 

 will immortalize those who make them, and confer upon the 

 human race advantages which as yet, perhaps, we are not in a 

 condition to appreciate. We may still say with our great 

 countryman, Sir Isaac Newton, that we have been but like 



J * 



children playing on the sea-shore, and picking up here and 

 there a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, 

 while the great ocean of truth lies all undiscovered before us. 



o 



Thus, then, the most sanguine hopes for the future are 

 justified by the whole experience of the past. It is surely 

 unreasonable to suppose that a process which has been going 

 on for so many thousand years, should have now suddenly 

 ceased ; and he must be blind indeed who imagines that our 

 civilization is unsusceptible of improvement, or that we our- 

 selves are in the highest state attainable by man. 



If we turn from experience to theory, the same conclusion 

 forces itself upon us. The great principle of natural selection, 



