84 The Destiny of Man. 



life so much of its interest and value. But 

 more important still has been the work of 

 industrial civilization in the ethical field. 

 By furnishing a wider basis for political 

 union than mere blood -relationship, it 

 greatly extended the area within which 

 moral obligations were recognized as bind- 

 ing. At first confined to the clan, the 

 idea of duty came at length to extend 

 throughout a state in which many clans 

 were combined and fused, and as it thus 

 increased in generality and abstractness, 

 the idea became immeasurably strength- 

 ened and ennobled. At last, with the rise 

 of empires, in which many states were 

 brought together in pacific industrial re- 

 lations, the recognized sphere of moral ob- 

 ligation became enlarged until it compre- 

 hended all mankind. 



