BRITAIN'S COAL CELLARS. 95 



for bringing coals to the surface with less waste , and even 

 at less cost, than at present. And in other ways the 

 process of exhaustion may be more or less effectively 

 checked. 



But while we may thus look somewhat confidently 

 forward, as I judge, to the future of our country, serious 

 questions are suggested as to the future of the human 

 race. The period during which a nation flourishes, long 

 as it seems by comparison with the life of man, yet sinks 

 into insignificance when compared with the period during 

 which civilised men will bear sway upon the earth. The 

 thousands of years during which the coal stores of the 

 earth may be expected to last will pass away, and then 

 the descendants of those now living on the earth will 

 have to trust to other force-supplies than those which we 

 are now using so lavishly. It may seem fanciful to look 

 so far forward, and yet by comparison with the periods 

 which the astronomer deals with in considering the 

 future of our earth, thousands of years are as nothing. 

 As I have said elsewhere, 'those thousands of years 

 will pass as surely as the thousands which have already 

 passed, and the wants entailed by wastefulness in our 

 day will then be felt, and none the less that for so many 

 years there had been no failure in the supplies contained 

 within the great subterranean storehouse.' It behoves 

 us to consider thoughtfully the wants even of those 

 distant eras. If the greatest good for the greatest 

 number is to be regarded as the true rule for the con- 

 duct of intelligent beings, then unquestionably mere 

 distance in point of time should not prevent us from an- 



