PT. m. Progress and Civilisation. 167 



career of the First Napoleon, he would narrate the 

 successive Eevolutions which have convulsed France, 

 and would analyse the provisions and endeavour to 

 trace the effect of our own two Kef or m Bills, but he 

 would probably pass over with a cursory notice the 

 invention and application of Steam, the Electric 

 Telegraph, and all the other marvels of Science, 

 which have transformed the whole state and condition 

 of Man, and effected a change as complete as if a 

 new living being had been created. These changes 

 steal upon us imperceptibly, they are heralded by no 

 fierce contests for power, they involve no sudden 

 destruction of whole classes, no violent convulsions 

 of society ; at their commencement they scarcely 

 attract notice, they steal on gradually, and it is not 

 till their operation has become felt in its extended 

 effects that the immense influence it is exerting upon 

 the destinies of Mankind become slowly apparent. 

 There is another happy characteristic in this march 

 of scientific progress that in its results it is always 

 beneficial. It is perpetually adding to the aggregate 

 of human power, wealth and enjoyment, and it never 

 reaches its end through human suffering. It uses 

 no guillotine, it establishes no conscription, it 

 plunges into no wars, it prosecutes its peaceful con- 



