The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1870-02-26

1LCN%1
wholly fabulous, that his contemporaries coult
hear without reverence his declaration that will
a standing place he could move the world?
In the period of medieval and later art, how
were the 80 STORED windows - of the old Cathedral
enabled to cast their ~ dim religious ligbt?'
What was the marvellous preparation and com
bination of colors which enabled Raphael to give
to his exquisite lines a living humanity, which
art-students of the present age contemplate with
admiring despair, and which the destroying hanC
of time, through the whole course of centuries
has been unable to efface? Passing from the
Old World to the New, to the deserted cities OF
Mexico and Peru, what mechanical theory, now
understood, will explain the erection OF the mys-
terious structures, which are the only touching
memorials of a mighty but unknown people!
On the silent shores of Lake Superior, deep down
in the bowels of the earth, modern enterprise
has re-discovered a mass of mineral wealth. But
the wit of man had explored that field before,
and traces of his skill survive. Huge masses of
virgin copper, which now yield only to patient
blows of the chisel, administered by the human
hand, have evidently been removed with facility
in an age and by agencies, of which we have
no record. And by whom? To what point
Upon what vehicles, by land or water? Have
no arts been lost? Has no civilization been
Obscured or obliterated! Has all the wisdom,
ard all the knowledge, and all the art, and
elegance, and culture, and skill, and genius, and
wit, of the whole world, and all the ages, been
concentrated upon the present period, until re-
pTOuuCtu DN Il BIduu IuolOU, d. III OHc 1llIueIeS
crucible, with a harmonious blending of all the
elements, without the loss of any, we find the
gems Of the human intellect perfectly preserved
but newly assorted in a g%littering combination ?
As in chemistry, it is true, in one sense, that
no particle of matter is ever lost, but ONLY
changed in character; so in the history of civil
zation it is the fact that by the operation of
powerful a~fhnities or neutralizing agencies many
characteristics of the worlds refinement, if not
obliterated, are too effectually disguised to be
I--..
produce itself indefinitely, each epoch will have
its distinguishing features which will not re-
appear, like the theocratic principle of Judea,
the intellectual subtlety of Greece, the imperial
state-craft of Rome, the selfdenying but aimless
enthusiasm of the age of chivalry, or the sturdy
protesting spirit of the Reformation. And withal,
no age is very much beyond those which have
gone before. The course of human nature, like
the fashion of hats or cOoking-stOves may greatly
change from time to time without marked i'm
p~rOvement. The theories of Condorcet and the
doctinaires of France who fancied mankind to be
rapidly travelling the highway to perfection with
the goal almost in sight are too wild to be refuted.
The history of civilization is a history of revolu-
tons, ages of action succeeding ages of reflection,
and ages of practice succeeding ages of inquiry.
Yet, after all, the world is growing somewhat
wiser, and it is to be hoped, better. The sum
total of human knowledge and refinement and
culture in the present time, although much is
lost, and although its characteristics are novel,
exceeds that OF any others and even Athens, in
the days of Pericles, with its philosophy and its
wit, it's taste and its practical wisdom represented
no state of things to be compared with the
present age of material comfort and comprehensive
inquiry. The petty railway station may yet vie
with the ParthenOn, and like the classic but
hungry traveller who preferred eating a good
dinner to clambering up Parnassus, the people of
the present age admire that refined civilization
which as the rule of human conduct adopts the
simple law of love of God and man, which believes
i'll assuaging pain. in ameliorating the condition
of the human race, in promoting the material
comfort of all mankind, which aspires to hold
nations together by the influences of commerce
and free intercourse, and which promotes these
grand objects by reducing the mighty agencies of
the physical world to subordination and control.
They prefer this to the subtleties of schoolmen,
the asceticism of martyrs or the craft of statesmen.
Civilization then is susceptible of progress,
and must have a destiny and ultimate triumph.
Its progress must be contemplated in the spirit
in which Macaulay criticised the Baconian philos-
Ophy, Its law is progress. a point which
yesterday was invisible is its goal to-day, and
be its starting post tomorrow" 1t is inter-
esting to observe what results have followed a
process purely inductiye, and how l~egitimately
the civilization of the present age has resulted
from the wisdom and experience of those which
have gone before.
Let us then consider what civilization has
and what remains to be accomplished.
Occupying an island, which, less than a century
ago, was held by barbarians, and wholly unknown
by the rest of the world, enjoying all the comforts
md conveniences Of civilized life, in constant
with every part of the globe,
visited by foreigners of every nationality, with
every language spoken in our streets, we are well
to observe, and, perhaps, appreciate the
advancement and true condition of human society.
The first noticeable feature in the present de-
of civilization is the practical appli-
alton of science to the useful arts, and the cum 1
ling manner In which the laws and eccentricities j
nature have been made to subserye the neces- {
of man. OF this the railway is the readiest '
Illustration. Not only in Athens, where & railway s
tation excites sentimentalisIn, but in the primeval t
and untrodden plains of the American /
its power is felt and, under its inlu- v
nee, new cities rise like the magic creations of q
.'rospero's wand. And all this is because some
ne has discovered that hot water occupies more 7
pace than cold, and human ingenuity, by sue e
essive experiments and contriyances, has so d- t
ected this simple principle as to secure the most O
results on the sea and land. Q
But if the power of steam has thus far been g.
of extraordinary results, the subsection h
f the subtle electricity to the wit of man is t.
erhaps the most startling achievement OF modern n
,ience. We admire triumphs of the mind more v
nan of the hands, because mystery attaches to G.
hat is unseen and impalpable. So, we marvel n
realty when we know that this electricity, SO o
ystcrious and so awful, which no one sees or n
In see, but which can rend mountains and pros q
ate trees, can be made to do the bidding of m
an, to regulate by his direction the movements n
great armies, to control the commercial trans q
of the whole world, to secure the Offices r,
affection at solemn moments, to circumvent h
query, to cement friendships, to flash the words fc
truth over lofty mountains and beneath mighty il
,eans, during storms of terrible severity and in
ghts of pitchy blackness: u
"The same great force, which sends its dread, it
Fire-blazing locks round Etnas head, :
Along the wires in silence fares, VI
And messages of commerce bears" M
1ch a victory of civilization amazes us with the ID
fought of what may yet be in store. OF
Now let us pass from what is SO startling to 81
of the less striking, but still most significant, I'll
of the tendencies of modern c%iviliza- to
On.
Geological discovery is rapidly pushed forward, 70
1t not in the spirit of Intellectual speculation, OF
for the mere vindication Of theories, yet so IA
CROUCH is the knowledge of eminent biologists, W
at from tho sprface of the earth MANY of them W