1854] WRITINGS OF JOSEPH HENRY. 827 



Another important fact is that every generation must edu- 

 cate and give character to the one which follows it, and that 

 the true progress of the world in intelligence and morality 

 consists in the gradual improvement of the several genera- 

 tions as they succeed each other. That great advance has 

 been made in this way, no one can doubt who views the facts 

 of history with an unprejudiced mind ; but still the improve- 

 ment has not been continuous. There have been various 

 centers and periods of civilization. Egypt, Greece, and 

 Rome, though they have left an impress upon the world which 

 extends even to our time, and modifies all the present, have 

 themselves " mouldered down." It appears therefore that 

 civilization itself may be considered as a condition of un- 

 stable equilibrium, which requires constant effort to be sus- 

 tained, and a still greater effort to be advanced. It is not, 

 in my view, the manifest destiny of humanity to improve 

 by the operation of an inevitable, necessary law of progress; 

 but while I believe that it is the design of Providence that 

 man should be improved, this improvement must be the 

 result of individual effort, or of the combined effort of many 

 individuals, animated by the same feeling, and co-operating 

 for the attainment of the same end. The world is still in a 

 degraded condition ; ignorance. Want, rapine, murder, super- 

 stition, fraud, uncleanliness, inhumanity, and malignity 

 abound. We thank God however that he has given us the 

 promise, and in some cases the foretaste — of a happier and 

 holier condition ; that he has vouchsafed to us as individuals* 

 each in his own sphere, the privilege, and has enjoined upon 

 us the duty, of becoming his instruments, and thus co- 

 workers in ameliorating the condition of ourselves and our 

 fellow-men ; and above all that he has enabled us through 

 education to improve the generations which are to follow 

 us. If we sow judiciously in the present, the world will 

 assuredly reap a beneficent harvest in the future; and he 

 has not lived in vain who leaves behind him as his suc- 

 cessor — a child better educated morally, intellectually, and 

 physically than himself. From this point of view the re- 

 sponsibilities of life are immense. Every individual by his 



