278 EVOLUTION AND THE PRESENT AGE 
swift and astonishing development of science since 
Newton’s time, the repeated discovery of new truths, 
the frequent invention of new industrial devices, the 
often renewed triumph of mind over matter, due sim- 
ply to that wholesome habit, has diffused it in more 
or less strength throughout all civilized communities. 
In short, we bring to the whole business of life minds 
predisposed very differently from what they were two 
centuries ago, and one of the results is the disappear- 
ance of witchcraft from our thoughts. It has not been 
crushed by a battery of arguments; it has simply been 
dropped out in cold neglect, as a dead political issue 
is dropped out of our campaign platforms without a 
passing word of respect. 
Now with regard to some of the scientific truths, 
methods, and habits which I have alluded to as char- 
acteristic of the theory of evolution and its pioneers, 
it is obvious that they have begun to permeate the 
thought of our time in many directions. Take, for 
example, the writing of history. There was a time 
when historians dealt mainly in personal details, in the 
intrigues of courts and in battles and sieges; when 
the study of some conspicuous personality like Luther 
or Napoleon was supposed to suffice for the under- 
standing of the historic movements of his time; when 
it could be said of sundry decisive battles that a con- 
trary event would have essentially altered the direction 
of human development through all subsequent ages; 
when some writers even went so far as to declare that 
the biographies of all great men lumped together would 
be equivalent to a history of mankind. Throughout 
this whole school of writing you may detect that fond- 
ness for the unusual and catastrophic that used to 
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