378 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 



We are now in a position to form some general esti- 

 mate of progress and retrogression during the nineteenth 

 century, and to realize to some extent what will "be the 

 verdict of the future upon it. We have seen that it has 

 been characterized by a marvellous and altogether un- 

 precedented progress in knowledge of the universe and 

 of its complex forces; and also in the application of that 

 knowledge to an infinite variety of purposes, calculated, 

 if properly utilized, to supply all the wants of every hu- 

 man being, and to add greatly to the comforts, the enjoy- 

 ments, and the refinements of life. The bounds of 

 human knowledge have been so far extended that new 

 vistas have opened to us in directions where it had been 

 thought that we could never penetrate, and the more we 

 learn the more we seem capable of learning in the ever- 

 widening expanse of the universe. It may be truly said 

 of men of science that they have now become as gods 

 knowing good and evil; since they have been able not 

 only to utilize the most recondite powers of nature in 

 their service, but have in many cases been able to dis- 

 cover the sources of much of the evil that afflicts hu- 

 manity, to abolish pain, to lengthen life, and to add 

 immensely to the intellectual as well as to the physical 

 enjoyments of our race. 



But the more we realize the vast possibilities of hu- 

 man welfare which science has given us, the more we 

 must recognize our total failure to make any adequate 

 use of them. With ample power to supply to the fullest 

 extent necessaries, comforts, and even luxuries for all, 

 and at the same time allow ample leisure for intellectual 



