374 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Uni 



physical structure of the universe and its changes, and consider 

 the history of mankind in the aggregate, we shall see at every 

 point of our investigation the operation of the progressive law. 

 Consider the physical history of the race. During the earliest 

 periods man was a savage, and man's life was little distinguished 

 from the brute. His whole existence was an incessant struggle 

 against the elements of nature and the fury of wild beasts. At 

 first his only food must have been fruits and roots; for he 

 occupied the world a long while before he was competent to in- 

 vent any weapon wherewith to destroy animals. His pillow was 

 a stone, and his roof a tree or a cavern. From the day when he 

 first made a flint implement, and the time when he discovered 

 how to kindle fire, to the year when Birmingham and Sheffield 

 manufactories and forges rose, and railways and telegraphs were 

 universalised, there is one long record whose every page is 

 marked by the gradual operation of the law of progress. Con- 

 sider the course of legislation. The might of the strong was at 

 first the only law. Before even the semblance of just laws rose 

 into a system, countless ages, laden with injustice, passed away. 

 Consider the history of religion. Generation after generation 

 lived in the practice of gross superstitions before Jesus Christ 

 came to propound our present religion, and it has taken upwards 

 of 1800 years for that system to establish itself even theoretically 

 amongst certainly a small proportion of mankind. IL. 



A Hint of Universal Brotherhood. 



It is the fact that " languages are many, when people are 

 savage and rude, or semi-barbarous." In proportion as men 

 become civilised, and communities more extensive, they become 

 few in number, the smaller and ruder dialects being gradually 

 absorbed or violently exterminated by the prevalence of the 

 more polite, improved, and consequently the most useful forms. 

 May it not be inferred that there will ultimately reign among 

 all people one common language 1 ? In that event, the possi- 

 bilities of misunderstandings between men would be immensely 

 reduced, and a universal brotherhood would be a realised dream. 



s. 



