Preliminaries. 
The mighty development represented by the XIX*'' century 
as contrasted with preceding ages produced the most radical 
transformations in that part of our World which stands highest 
in point of intellect, the States belonging to the Temperate 
Zone. 
The triumph of the inductive method, expressed in the 
fact that man, to ease his own existence and render it more 
beautiful and more comprehensive, has received or rather 
forced into his service those powers which in their inmost 
being he cannot conceive — I would mention merely elec- 
tricity with its power of destruction, giving light, driving 
and transmission, — has transformed the whole world of 
reasoning and the whole material foundation on which present 
society stands and is developing. 
The tradition which preserved or perhaps explained the 
first evidence of the power of steam, symbolised in the kettle, 
the lid of which the steam of the boiling water was capable 
of lifting, developed into James Watt making the power of 
steam the slave of man in the form of a steam-engine, a 
power that has displayed its driving force in places where, 
in the opinion of older ages, no thought of such a thing 
could be entertained, thus incalculably extending its sphere 
