THE SCIENTIFIC AGE. 817 



iucessant and impregnable, the end to which it is tending remains 

 hidden to us ; but we can discern from its beginnings the direction 

 into which it is to turn the principles on which popular life has hith- 

 erto rested. For this purpose we need only to carry out further the 

 changes which have been already begun. We can then easily perceive 

 that, in the age of the reign of the sciences, severe manual labor, by 

 which man has been very hardly and still is considerably oppressed in 

 the struggle for existence, will be more and more reduced by the 

 increasing utilization of natural forces in mechanical service, that the 

 work that falls to man will become continually more of a mental char- 

 acter, while it will be his part to direct the work of iron laborers (or 

 machines) but not himself to perform rough bodily labor. We see, 

 further, that in the scientific age the necessaries of life and luxuries 

 will be supplied with far less human toil, and that a much larger share 

 of these products of labor will fall to each man at the expense of less 

 working-time. We shall see, also, that, through scientific and properly 

 directed cultivation, a very much larger quantity of food-products will 

 be obtained from the soil than heretofore, and that the number of 

 men devoted to this branch of industry may be correspondingly dimin- 

 ished. We shall find that through the improvement and greater expe- 

 dition of communication and transportation an ever-more ready ex- 

 change of the products of different lands and climates will be made 

 possible by which the life of men will be rendered more enjoyable and 

 their existence assured against the consequences of local scarcities. It 

 also appears very probable that chemistry in connection with electro- 

 technics will some time succeed in composing real food-substances out 

 of the inexhaustible abundance of their elements everywhere present, 

 and thereby make the number of those who may be supported inde- 

 pendent of the ultimate productive capacity of the soil. This pro- 

 gressively augmenting facility in obtaining the material means of 

 existence will, by the shortening of the working-time that will have to 

 be applied to that purpose, afford to men the leisure they will need 

 for their better mental cultivation ; the better perfected and cheap- 

 ened making of mechanical reproductions of artistic creations will also 

 prepare the way for bringing these works into the cottages, and will 

 make art, beautifying the life and elevating the moral standard, acces- 

 sible to all mankind, instead of to privileged classes only. We are 

 strongly of the conviction that the light of science, penetrating more 

 deeply into the whole of human society, combats in the most effective 

 manner degrading superstitions and destructive fanaticism, and that 

 we shall be able therefore to go on in proud satisfaction with the build- 

 ing up of the age of science, in the sure prospect that it will lead man- 

 kind to a better moral and material condition than it has been or is 

 enjoying to-day. 



Our complacency on this subject has been disturbed very recently 

 by gloomy pessimistic views which have been formed in learned circles 

 vol. xxx. — 52 



