Masterpieces of Science 



such as fire, or electricity, stands for the exalta- 

 tion of power in every field of toil, for the creation 

 of a new earth for the worker, new heavens for 

 the thinker. As a corollary, we shall observe 

 that an increasing width of gap marks off the 

 successive stages of human progress from each 

 other, so that its latest stride is much the longest 

 and most decisive. And it will be further evi- 

 dent that, while every new faculty is of age-long 

 derivation from older powers and ancient apti- 

 tudes, it nevertheless comes to the birth in a 

 moment, as it were, and puts a strain of probably 

 fatal severity on those contestants who miss 

 the new gift by however little. We shall, there- 

 fore, find that the principle of permutation, here 

 merely indicated, accounts in large measure for 

 three cardinal facts in the history of man : First, 

 his leaps forward; second, the constant accelera- 

 tions in these leaps; and third, the gap in the 

 record of the tribes which, in the illimitable past, 

 have succumbed as forces of a new edge and 

 sweep have become engaged in the fray.* 



The interlacements of the arts of fire and of 

 electricity are intimate and pervasive. While 

 many of the uses of flame date back to the dawn 

 of human skill, many more have become of new 

 and higher value within the last hundred years. 

 Fire to-day yields motive power with tenfold 



* Some years ago I sent an outline of this argument to 

 Herbert Spencer, who replied: "I recognize a novelty and 

 value in your inference that the law implies an increasing 

 width of gap between lower and higher types as evolution 

 advances." 



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