Life Progressive. 419 
grandeur and dignity of man. Not only has he achieved 
for himself a great victory in this rising by the power of 
mind superior to nature in a sense, but he has also gained a 
directing influence over other existences, in that he has been 
able to grasp from nature some of that power which, before 
his apppearance, she universally exercised. From all that 
man has accomplished in the past, it is easy to anticipate the 
time when only cultivated plants and domestic animals will 
be produced by the earth, and when the ocean, which, for 
countless cycles of ages ruled supreme over the globe, will 
be the only domain in which that power can be exercised. 
That man has improved under civilization there can be no 
question. Statistics show that, since the introduction of 
civilization, the population of the earth in general has 
increased. No one can fail to observe that under its influence 
the means of subsistence have increased even more rapidly 
than the population. Far from suffering for lack of food, 
the most densely peopled countries are those in which it 
is, not only absolutely but even relatively most abundant. 
A thousand men live to-day in plenty upon an area of ground 
that would scarcely afford a scanty and precarious subsist- 
ence to a single savage. There is no denying the fact that 
happiness is increased by civilization. To talk of the free 
and noble savage is folly. The true savage is neither free 
nor noble. He is a slave to his own wants, his own passions. 
Imperfectly protected as he is from the weather, he suffers 
at night from the cold and by day from the heat of the sun. 
Ignorant of agriculture, living by the chase, and improvident 
in success, hunger ever stares him in the face, and often drives 
him to the dreadful alternative of cannibalism or death. The 
life of all beasts in their wild state is certainly an exceedingly 
anxious one. So it is with the savage He is always sus- 
picious, always in danger, always on the watch. He can 
depend on no one, and no one can depend upon him, for he 
expects nothing from his neighbor, and does unto others as 
he believes that they would do unto him. His life is one 
