156 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 



the last three or four centuries. The eighteenth cen- 

 tury, instead of showing some approximation to the 

 wealth of discovery in our own age, is less remarkable 

 than the seventeenth, having only ahout half the num- 

 ber of really great advances. 



It appears then that the statement in my first chap- 

 ter, that to get any adequate comparison with the nine- 

 teenth century we must take, not any preceding century 

 or group of centuries, but rather the whole preceding 

 epoch of human history, is justified, and more than justi- 

 fied, by the comparative lists now given. And if we 

 take into consideration the change effected in science, in 

 the arts, in all the possibilities of human intercourse, and 

 in the extension of our knowledge, both of our earth and 

 of the whole visible universe, the difference shown by. 

 the mere numbers of these advances will have to be con- 

 siderably increased on account of the marvellous charac- 

 ter and vast possibilities of further development of many 

 of our recent discoveries. Both as regards the number 

 and the quality of its onward advances, the age in which 

 we live fully merits the title I have ventured to give it 

 of THE WONDERFUL CENTUKY. 



