664 INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT UPON HUMAN INDUSTRIES. 



Xow, few of us have learned this lesson and none of us profit by it. 

 In that perfect day that is to come the heir of all the ages will look 

 upon every indulgence that is fatal to life and to lull intellectual activity 

 as a sin and a crime against humanity akin to maiming and murder. 



But there are higher laws of existence and the ages have richer 

 treasures than gravity and physics and chemistry and biology. 



A great philosopher of the past tells us that the spiritual life and 

 the conquest of the earth are better than the ownership of the earth. 

 This is what Tennyson meant by the ages of which you are the heir. 

 The substitution of beast, water, steam, and electric power for mere bod- 

 ily power; the substitution of mechanical devices and engineering for 

 the hands and the arms of men; the development of literature, paint- 

 ing, lace work, engraving, sculpture, music, architecture, and laud- 

 scape out of the natural sights and sounds of the world; the origination 

 and perfecting of language; the gradual organization of the family, 

 society, and government; the ever-improving explanation of the cos- 

 mos and ourselves called science and philosophy; the more ideal and 

 less grossly material unfolding of the spirit world and the divine life 

 within us are the inheritance of the present generation. 



The heir of the ages is one who owns the ages. He is the master of 

 the ages, not their slave. Their lands and resources, their powers and 

 machines, their productions and commerce, their accumulations and 

 enjoyments are his to control. The heir of the ages is a master spirit. 

 He causes the fire to burn, he is not consumed by it; he causes the 

 waters to flow, he is not overwhelmed by them; he passes through 

 the deep, the deep can not enter him; he rides on the wings of the 

 wind; he harnesses the lightning to his chariot. He is now the realiza- 

 tion of the myth of Orpheus, at whose touch the rapid rivers indeed 

 ceased to flow, the savage beasts of the forest forgot their wildness, and 

 the mountains moved to listen to his song. All nature in his presence 

 wore new charms. But the comparison does not stop there. This all- 

 conquering son of Apollo, stricken for the loss of his sensuous Eurydice, 

 pursued her to the under world. He was allowed to lead her thence 

 on the promise that he would not look back. But when he turned to 

 gaze on his lovely Eurydice she vanished forever from his sight. In 

 unconsolable grief he gave himself to melancholy and was torn to 

 pieces by drunken Thracian women. They threw him into the Hebrus, 

 and it is said that its waters as they roll to the sea still whisper Euryd- 

 ice, Eurydice! And thus the heir of all the ages, like a prodigal bird, 

 perished in the electric light of his own passions. 



There is a special sense in which this particular body of hearers are 

 the heirs of all the ages. It is as the children and the heirs of sci- 

 ence. Changing events and diversities of ambitions and interests will 

 bring other men to our side and drive them away again. But the stamp 

 of our intellectual kinship is upon us. Into our keeping must or ought 

 to fall her interests and her good name. You should ever be foremost 



