816 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



phone ; when photography is at the service of all classes ; and when 

 the latest fruit of the association of science and art, electro-technics, is 

 opening to man, in its rapid unfolding, ever-new regions of inconceiv- 

 able extent for further research and useful applications of the forces of 

 Nature ? To the investigator — who, more than any other class of men, 

 is accustomed to draw conclusions from the course of observed phe- 

 nomena as to the law controlling them — it is, however, not the latest 

 state of development, but its causes, and the laws on which they de- 

 pend, that are of surpassing importance. The clearly recognizable 

 law is that of the progressive acceleration of our present advance in 

 civilization. Periods of development, which in former times required 

 hundreds of years for their accomplishment, which in the beginning of 

 our age needed decades, are now completed in years, and sometimes 

 come into being in full perfection. This is the natural result of our 

 highly perfected system of instruction, by which the acquisitions of 

 science, and particularly the scientific method, have been introduced into 

 the broad stream of art and popular life in all their forms of efficacy. 



Thus we see how, by virtue of our now excellent system of com- 

 munications, every new scientific thought is at once flashed through 

 the whole civilized world, and how thousands endeavor to grasp it and 

 to apply it in the most diverse spheres of life. Sometimes it may be 

 only modest observations, sometimes only the overcoming of small 

 impediments that stand in the way of the recognition of the scientific 

 relations of phenomena. They may often be the point of departure 

 for a new course of advance, previously quite unanticipated, but im- 

 portant for human life. The progressive development conditioned 

 upon these principles will therefore continue, if man does not himself 

 in his conceit interrupt it, as long as science keeps going on to higher 

 degrees of knowledge. The deeper insight we get into the secret pro- 

 cesses of Nature, the more we are convinced that we are still standing 

 in the extreme outer court of science, that an as yet immeasurable field 

 of work lies before us, and that it still appears at least very questionable 

 whether man will ever reach a complete knowledge of Nature. There 

 is, therefore, no ground for doubting the continuance of the progressive 

 ascent of scientific and technical evolution, unless man himself interferes 

 with it by conduct inimical to civilization. But even hostile attacks 

 can henceforth cause only temporary interruptions in the course of 

 development, or at most only partial reversions, for, in the presence of 

 the printing of books and the wide diffusion of the results of modern 

 civilization, the scientific and technical accomplishments of mankind 

 can never again be lost. Moreover, the peoples who cultivate these 

 arts and lift them higher acquire through them such a dominant 

 ascendency, so great a fullness of power, that their subjection in the 

 contest with uncivilized people, and the breaking out of a new barbaric 

 age, appear impossible. 



"While we thus regard the present development of civilization as 



