Masterpieces of Science 



trician are of absorbing interest in themselves, 

 they bear a higher significance to the student of 

 man as a creature who has gradually come to be 

 what he is. In tracing the new horizons won by 

 electric science and art, a beam of light falls on 

 the long and tortuous paths by which man rose 

 to his supremacy long before the drama of 

 human life had been chronicled or sung. 



Of the strides taken by humanity on its way 

 to the summit of terrestrial life, there are but 

 four worthy of mention as preparing the way for 

 the victories of the electrician the attainment 

 of the upright attitude, the intentional kindling 

 of fire, the maturing of emotional cries to articu- 

 late speech, and the invention of written symbols 

 for speech. As we examine electricity in its 

 fruitage we shall find that it bears the unfailing 

 mark of every other decisive factor of human 

 advance: its mastery is no mere addition to the 

 resources of the race, but a multiplier of them. 

 The case is not as when an explorer discovers a 

 plant hitherto unknown, such as Indian corn, 

 which takes its place beside rice and wheat as a 

 new food, and so measures a service which ends 

 there. Nor is it as when a prospector comes 

 upon a new metal, such as nickel, with the sole 

 effect of increasing the variety of materials from 

 which a smith may fashion a hammer or a blade. 

 Almost infinitely higher is the benefit wrought 

 when energy in its most useful phase is, for the 

 first time, subjected to the will of man, with 

 dawning knowledge of its unapproachable 

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