184 A Century of Science 



warfare, and such bloody superstitions as the belief 

 in witchcraft ; but men contrived to endure it, 

 because they had no experience of anything better, 

 and could not even form a conception of relief 

 save such as the Church afforded. Deluges of 

 war, fraught with horrors which stagger our pow 

 ers of conception, swept at brief intervals over 

 every part of the continent of Europe, and the 

 intervals were mostly filled with petty waspish 

 raids that brought robbery and murder home to 

 everybody s door ; while honest industry, penned 

 up within walled towns, was glad of such precari 

 ous immunity as stout battlements eked out by 

 blackmail could be made to afford. Fighting was 

 incessant and ubiquitous. The change wrought 

 in six centuries has been amazing, and it has been 

 chiefly due to industrial development. Private 

 warfare has been extinguished, famine and pesti 

 lence seldom occur in civilized countries, mental 

 habits nurtured by science have banished the 

 witches, the land is covered with cheerful home 

 steads, and the achievement of success in life 

 through devotion to industrial pursuits has become 

 general. Wars have greatly diminished in fre 

 quency, in length, and in the amount of misery 

 needlessly inflicted. We have thus learned how 

 pleasant life can become under peaceful conditions, 



