PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



still in its effects : the working classes, relying upon labour 

 and being made independent by it, cease to be the 

 tools of their masters, and democracy ensues. Finally, 

 the desire for wealth gives a new impulse to human 

 energies, whilst wealth itself promotes the expansion of 

 science, art, and literature. All this chain and interaction 

 of consequences, it is clear, have in the main originated 

 from science. 



In the sphere of POLITICS we find the same fact. The 

 invention of gunpowder and the use of it by scientific 

 appliances altered the political organisation of Europe. 

 Cannon, the arm of royalty, destroyed feudalism; the castles 

 of the Barons could not hold on against powder and shot, and 

 the aristocracy, ruled by a power superior to its own, ceased 

 to wage universal war ; whilst the musket, against which the 

 armour was no longer proof, destroyed the ascendency of 

 the knight on the battlefield. Cavalry had to yield to 

 infantry. " Force passed from the hands of the nobility to 

 those of the people " ; the further ascendency of foot over 

 horse, of musket over lance and sword, being secured by 

 Vauban's bayonet. Gunpowder also permitted dynasties 

 to weld into nations the people of the same kindred a result 

 which feudalism rendered impossible. It had another effect : 

 it made battles less lengthy, less bloody, and thus had a share 

 in the growth of humanising feelings. The downfall of the 

 political power of the nobility was so much gain to democracy ; 

 the desire for political equality was parent to it, and grew 

 apace from the confidence in their own strength which the 

 people gradually felt. Meanwhile, the civil power, too, so 

 arbitrary and inhuman for centuries, underwent numerous 

 alterations beneficial to the multitude. The rise and force of 

 public opinion became a factor with which civil power had 

 to reckon to prevent rebellion and revolution. The 

 influence exercised by the middle classes and due to 

 their possession of wealth ; the democratic sentiment due to 

 the craving for freedom both offspring of the industrial 

 spirit compelled governments to yield to the aspirations first 

 of the burgess class, and next to those of the working class. 

 The executive became less and less despotic ; the franchise 



