II THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 51 



But, a little later, that growth of knowledge 

 beyond imaginable utilitarian ends, which is the 

 condition precedent of its practical utility, began 

 to produce some effect upon practical life ; and the 

 operation of that part of nature we call human 

 upon the rest began to create, not " new natures," 

 in Bacon's sense, but a new Nature, the existence 

 of which is dependent upon men's efforts, which is 

 subservient to their wants, and which would dis- 

 appear if man's shaping and guiding hand were 

 withdrawn. Every mechanical artifice, every 

 chemically pure substance employed in manufac- 

 ture, every abnormally fertile race of plants, or 

 rapidly growing and fattening breed of animals, is 

 a part of the new Nature created by science. 

 Without it, the most densely populated regions of 

 modern Europe and America must retain their 

 primitive, sparsely inhabited, agricultural or 

 pastoral condition ; it is the foundation of our 

 wealth and the condition of our safety from sub- 

 mergence by another flood of barbarous hordes ; 

 it is the bond which unites into a solid political 

 whole, regions larger than any empire of antiquity; 

 it secures us from the recurrence of the pestilences 

 and famines of former times ; it is the source of 

 endless comforts and conveniences, which are not 

 mere luxuries, but conduce to physical and moral 

 well-being. During the last fifty years, this new 

 birth of time, this new Nature begotten by science 

 upon fact, has pressed itself daily and hourly upon 



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