CHAPTER XV. 



ESTIMATE OF ACHIEVEMENTS I THE NINETEENTH AS COM- 

 PAKED WITH EAKLIEK CENTURIES. 



The long crude efforts of society 



la feeble light by feeble reason led, 

 But gleaning, gathering still, effect of cause, 



Cause of effect, in ceaseless sequence fed; 

 Till, slow developing the eons through, 



The gibbering savage to a Darwin grew 

 This hath Time witnessed ! Shall his records now, 

 The goal attain'd the end achieved, avow ? 



J. H. Dell. 



HAVING: now completed our sketch of those practical 

 discoveries and striking generalizations of science which 

 have in so many respects changed the outward forms of 

 onr civilization, and will ever render memorable the cen- 

 tury now so near its close, we are in a position to sum up 

 its achievements, and compare them with what has gone 

 before. 



Taking first those inventions and practical applications 

 of science which are perfectly new departures, and which 

 have also so rapidly developed as to have profoundly 

 affected many of our habits, and even our thoughts and 

 our language, we find them to be thirteen in number. 



1. Railways, which have revolutionized land-travel 

 and the distribution of commodities. 



2. Steam-navigation, which has done the same thing 

 for ocean travel, and has besides led to the entire recon- 

 struction of -the navies of the world. 



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