MIRACLES 



The social organism is not only larger and more power- 

 ful, but is capable of a greater variety of achievements, 

 the functions of the various states and classes of work- 

 ers being more highly differentiated and mutually com- 

 plementary (like the cells and tissues in the higher 

 animal body of the metazoa). Nutrition is easier and 

 more luxurious. Art and science are well developed. A 

 great advance is seen in regard to reHgion, the numerous 

 gods being generally conceived as manlike spirits, and 

 finally subordinated to a chief god. The belief in miracles 

 flourishes greatly in poetry; in philosophy it is more 

 and more restricted. In the end, the working of mir- 

 acles is limited monotheistically to one god, or to his 

 priests and other men to whom he communicates the 

 power. 



Modern civilization in the narrower sense, as a con- 

 trast to the older civilization, opens, in my opinion, at 

 the beginning of the sixteenth century. At that time 

 took place some of the greatest achievements of human 

 thought among civilized peoples, and these broke the 

 chains of tradition and gave a fresh impetus to progress. 

 Men's own mental outlook was widened by the system of 

 Copernicus and the Reformation freed them from the 

 yoke of the papacy. Shortly before, the discovery of the 

 New World and the circumnavigation of the globe had 

 convinced men of the rotundity of the earth; geography, 

 natural history, medicine, and other sciences gained 

 inspiration and independence; printing and engraving 

 provided an important means of spreading the new 

 knowledge. This fresh impetus was chiefly of service 

 to philosophy, which now more and more rejected the 

 dictation of the Church and superstition; though it was 

 far from casting off the fetters altogether. This was not 

 generally possible until the nineteenth century, when 

 empirical science assumed an enormous importance, and 

 in the ensuing period of speculation the physical con- 



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