10 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 



locomotion we now possess should have attained about 

 the same maximum speed. The racehorse, the steam- 

 ship, and the bicycle, have each of them reached thirty 

 miles an hour. The horse is, however, close upon, if it 

 has not actually attained, its utmost limits; the bicycle 

 can already beat the horse for long distances, and will 

 certainly go at higher speeds for short ones; while the 

 steamship will also go much quicker, though how much 

 no one can yet say. The greatest possibilities are with 

 the bicycle, driven by electric power or compressed air, 

 by which means, on a nearly straight and fairly level, 

 asphalt track, no doubt fifty miles an hour will soon be 

 reached. 



We see, then, that during the nineteenth century 

 three distinct modes of locomotion have been originated 

 and brought to a high degree of perfection. Two of 

 them, the locomotive and the steamship, are altogether 

 different in principle from what had gone before. Up 

 to the very times of men now living, all our locomotion 

 was on the same old lines which had been used for thou- 

 sands of years. It had been improved in details, but 

 without any alteration of principle and without any very 

 great increase of efficiency. The principles on which 

 our present methods rest are new; they already far sur- 

 pass anything that could be effected by the older 

 methods ; with wonderful rapidity they have spread over 

 the whole world, and they have in many ways modified 

 the habits and even the modes of speech of all civilized 

 peoples. 



This vast change in the methods of human locomotion, 

 already so ubiquitous that by the younger generation 

 their absence rather than their presence is considered re- 



