190 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



reed : * there lies within him a fund of energy, operating intelli- 

 gently and so far akin to that which pervades the universe, that 

 it is competent to influence and modify the cosmic process. In 

 virtue of his intelligence, the dwarf bends the Titan to his will. 

 In every family, in every polity that has been established, the 

 cosmic process in man has been restrained and otherwise modified 

 by law and custom ; in surrounding Nature, it has been similarly 

 influenced by the art of the shepherd, the agriculturist, the artisan. 

 As civilization has advanced, so has the extent of this interfer- 

 ence increased ; until the organized and highly developed sciences 

 and arts of the present day have endowed man with a command 

 over the course of non-human nature greater than that once at- 

 tributed to the magicians. The most impressive, I might say 

 startling, of these changes have been brought about in the course 

 of the last two centuries ; while a right comprehension of the 

 process of life and of the means of influencing its manifestations 

 is only just dawning upon us. We do not yet see our way beyond 

 generalities ; and we are befogged by the obtrusion of false analo- 

 gies and crude anticipations. But Astronomy, Physics, Chemis- 

 try, have all had to pass through similar phases, before they 

 reached the stage at which their influence became an important 

 factor in human affairs. Physiology, Psychology, Ethics, Political 

 Science, must submit to the same ordeal. Yet it seems to me irra- 

 tional to doubt that, at no distant period, they will work as great 

 a revolution in the sphere of practice. 



The theory of evolution encourages no millennial anticipa- 

 tions. If, for millions of years, our globe has taken the upward 

 road, yet, some time, the summit will be reached and the down- 

 ward route will be commenced. The most daring imagination 

 will hardly venture upon the suggestion that the power and the 

 intelligence of man can ever arrest the procession of the great 

 year. 



Moreover, the cosmic nature born with us and, to a large ex- 

 tent, necessary for our maintenance, is the outcome of millions of 

 years of severe training, and it would be folly to imagine that a 

 few centuries will suffice to subdue its masterfulness to purely 

 ethical ends. Ethical nature may count upon having to reckon 



* " L'liomrne n'cst qu'iin roseau, le plus faible de la nature, mais c'est un roseau pen- 

 sant. II nc faut pas que I'univers entier s'arme pour I'ecraser. Une vapeur, une goutte 

 d'eau, suffit pour le tuer. Mais quand I'univers I'ecraserait, riiomme serait encore plus 

 noble que ce qui le tue, parce qu'i! salt qu'il meurt ; et I'avantage que I'univers a sur lui, 

 I'univers n'en sait rien." Femees de Pascal, chap, ii, x. [Man is but a reed, weakest in 

 Nature, but a reed which thinks. It needs not that the whole Universe should arm to 

 crush him. But were the Universe to crush him, man would still be more noble than that 

 which has slain him, because he knows that he dies, and that the Universe has the better 

 of him. The Universe knows nothing of this. Bohn's translation.'] 



