Life Progressive. 419 



grandeur and dignity of man. Not only has he achieved 

 for himself a great victory in this rising by the power of 

 mind superior to nature in a sense, but he has also gained a 

 directing influence over other existences, in that he has been 

 able to grasp from nature some of that power which, before 

 his apppearance, she universally exercised. From all that 

 man has accomplished in the past, it is easy to anticipate the 

 time when only cultivated plants and domestic animals will 

 be produced by the earth, and when the ocean, which, for 

 countless cycles of ages ruled supreme over the globe, will 

 be the only domain in which that power can be exercised. 



That man has improved under civilization there can be no 

 question. Statistics show that, since the introduction of 

 civilization, the population of the earth in general has 

 increased. No one can fail to observe that under its influence 

 the means of subsistence have increased even more rapidly 

 than the population. Far from suffering for lack of food, 

 the most densely peopled countries are those in which it 

 is, not only absolutely but even relatively most abundant. 

 A thousand men live to-day in plenty upon an area of ground 

 that would scarcely afford a scanty and precarious subsist- 

 ence to a single savage. There is no denying the fact that 

 happiness is increased by civilization. To talk of the free 

 and noble savage is folly. The true savage is neither free 

 nor noble. He is a slave to his own wants, his own passions. 

 Imperfectly protected as he is from the weather, he suffers 

 at night from the cold and by day from the heat of the sun. 

 Ignorant of agriculture, living by the chase, and improvident 

 in success, hunger ever stares him in the face, and often drives 

 him to the dreadful alternative of cannibalism or death. The 

 life of all beasts in their wild state is certainly an exceedingly 

 anxious one. So it is with the savage He is always sus- 

 picious, always in danger, always on the watch. He can 

 depend on no one, and no one can depend upon him, for he 

 expects nothing from his neighbor, and does unto others as 

 he believes that they would do unto him. His life is one 



