1 22 Moral effects of Scientific inventions. 



i breaking down the barriers between the various 

 nations of the Earth, and infusing- common interests 

 amongst all mankind. Nothing is uniting the sym- 

 pathies of different nations, increasing the friendly 

 feelings between them, and diminishing the probability 

 of war, more than the increasing facilities of com- 

 munication brought about in a great measure by the 

 developments of science and art ; more particularly by 

 ocean steam navigation, rapid postal communicationf 

 and the telegraph, (see p. 51). At the present time 

 there are about six Atlantic telegraph cables in use, 

 and an almost daily service of passenger steam ships 

 across that ocean. The use of inventions based upon 

 scientific discovery has aided moral progress in various 

 ways. AH inventions are made with the object of 

 supplying some real or supposed want, and nearly 

 everything which supplies a common want, conduces 

 to contentment and happiness and the general pro- 

 gress of mankind. No one can possibly measure or 

 estimate the advantage of the inventions of writing 

 and printing, in helping men to avoid quarrels, to 

 settle differences of opinion, to sympathise with 

 suffering, to give advice: &c. Similar moral functions 

 are also performed by the electric telegraph, and a 

 few specimens of some of the messages sent through 

 the wire would clearly illustrate this fact. Great 

 moral progress has also resulted from cheap daily 

 intelligence, collected largely with the aid of the 

 telegraph ; and of cheap books produced by means of 

 the steam engine. It is estimated that 250 millions 



