190 4 



by improvements in habit based on experience ; but 

 how slow was this advance while the use of the metals 



* 



was still unknown ! The iron age brought with it not 

 only new conveniences, but increased means of future 

 progress ; and here we have an acceleration in the rate 

 of advance. With the introduction of letters this rate 

 was increased many fold, and in the application of steam 

 we have a change equal in utility to any that has pre- 

 ceded it, and adding more than any to the possibilities 

 of future advance in many directions. By it power, 

 knowledge and means of happiness were to be dis- 

 tributed among the many. 



The uses to which human intelligence has successively 

 applied the materials furnished by nature have been 

 First, subsistence and defence : second, the accumula- 

 tion of power in the shape of a representative of that 

 labor which the use of matter involves ; in other words, 

 the accumulation of wealth. The possession of this 

 power involves new possibilities, for opportunity is 

 offered for the special pursuits of knowledge and the 

 assistance of the weak or undeveloped part of mankind 

 in its struggles. 



Thus, while the first men possessed the power of 

 speech, and could advance a little in knowledge through 

 the accumulation of the experiences of their predeces- 

 sors, they possessed no means of accumulating the 

 power of labor, no control over the activity of number* 

 in other words, no wealth. 



But the accumulation of knowledge finally brought 

 this advance about The extraction and utilization of 

 the metals, especially iron, formed the most important 

 step, since labor was thus facilitated and its productive- 

 ness increased in an incalculable degree. We have 



