176 PHYSICAL BASIS OF CIVILIZATION 



rendering equivalent beneficent service to the gen- 

 eral welfare. Prominent among the agencies here 

 referred to are heroism and genius. 



While the word "genius" is not specialty subject 

 to misinterpretation, the expressions "hero" and 

 "heroism" have been so indiscriminately used in 

 literature and common parlance that the sense in 

 which they are intended above must be explained. 

 They refer exclusively to unostentatious acts and 

 persons which are remarkable for courage, patience, 

 etc., in self -abnegating devotion to truth, justice, 

 liberty, to the relief of suffering, the reform of 

 wrongs, or to some other pure and noble ideal. 



Practical illustrations of this would undoubtedly 

 prove enlightening. But their selection must be 

 left to the discrimination of the reader. For it is 

 hard to find accounts of truly heroic acts and lives 

 that have not been distorted by prejudice, syco- 

 phancy, and incompetence. 



But how genius may affect the currents of history 

 can be comprehensively illustrated by reference. 



During the period of more than a thousand years 

 which is frequently distinguished as "the dark 

 ages," the system of control, which is symbolized, 

 so far as physical force is concerned, by the armored 

 knight, and in matters relating to intelligence and 

 morality by the infallible Church, ruled over the 

 souls and bodies of miserable humanity with inex- 

 pressible severity. Then human genius invented 

 gunpowder, printing, and the compass. Before these 



