The New York herald., 1870-02-06
TIE Nsusteenth Century-The New Ern OF
Progress.

l as compared with all previous consuiioo, mos
been century of miracles The decade which
| has Just ended, as compared with all previous
| decades, has been decade Of miracles. We
use the word miracle advisedly, for the tri-
umphs of progress in these later years have
been such that we cannot include them in the
mere category of wonders. In the earlier
years of the worlds history progress was slow,
and slow necessarily. Men vegetated rather
than lived. In the days Of Methuselah, and
even later life was easy; but so now is the
| had first to learn to use their hands; by and
! by the hands became skilfnl and made tools,
and later they used the tools with skill and to
some purpose. In proportion as science has
come to the aid Of man life has
| become intense Men began to live years
in days-hours in minutes But though
progress has been more or less steady, the
ratio of speed has been slow until compare
| lively recent times. Life at one time was
but an easy, gentle walk; later it quickened
! into a march, to double quick march, TO
run; now we rush on, not only with all the
force and rapidity of steam, but with the
| swiftness of the thunderbolt. Since the days
| of the peagreen Tally Ho and the yellow
Independent, only some thirty odd years ago,
how we have rushed and leaped and bounded
! forward!
| There are some who see no real good in
| what we have been in the habit of calling
modern progress. Such persons point to the
failure of many grand social experiments; to
the increasing poverty of the poor, espe-
cially in the older countries, and to the
increasing riches of the rich; to the gradually
decreasing influence of religion on all ranks
and classes of the people; to the havoc which
the love of individual liberty is working
among all the most sacred relations Of social
life. and to the notorious increase Of the
most heinous crimes in our grandest and
proudest centres of modern civilization. 1t
is not to be denied that all these charges are
too we'll founded. Science, the growth Of
knowledge among the people, the multiplica-
ton of material agents subordinate to the use
of man-these, while they have given man
greater power for good, have also given him
greater power for evil That modern pro-
gress is not an unmixed good we will at
once admit; but it must be repeated and
repeated that the evil is not in the science, not
in the increased knowledge, not in any of the
material agents. Whatever evil there is asso-
ciated with modern progress is to be traced to
its ancient source, the heart Of man. 1t is
not our opinion, however, that man is worse
now than he was. On the contrary it is our
| conviction that in the aggregate, man, in the
later years of the nineteenth century, whenever
| at least be has come under the influence Of
I those distinctive forces which we associate
with modern civilization, is wiser, nobler,
better animal than he ever was before. Nor
have we yet given up hope that his improve
ment morally will yet keep better pace with
the rapid strides of material progress.
Whatever doubts may exist as to whether
man has improved morally, there can be no
doubt in the mind Of any one who knows his
tory that life, life, has been rendered greatly
more enjoyable. All the earlier civilizations,
all the civilizations not European, of which we
have any knowledge, were marked by two dis
tlnctive features. There were but two classes
| the rulers and the ruled The rulers were
| tyrants; the people were slaves. This was
true Of India and of Egypt; it was true also
of Mexico and Peru. The result of the grind
ing tyranny under which the people suffered is
painfully visible in the India of to-day. The
colossal remains Of Memphis and Of Thebes
have for more than three thousand years COM
| mauded the admiration and wonder Of man.
kind but not every one who lifts his eyes to
the summit of the great pyramid, or who wan
ders wonderingly among the ruins of Karnak,
reflects that those monumental glories are,
after all, the records OF q nations shame. In
carrying single stone from Elephantine to
Sais two thousand men were occupied for
three years. The ancient Red Sea Canal
cost the lives Of one hundred and twenty
thousand Egyptians. To build one of the
Pyramids it required the labor OF three hun
| dred and sixty thousand men for twenty
years. We have mentioned Mexico and Peru,
not because those countries have any direct
connection with the main stream Of human
progress, but because, similarly situated to
India and Egypt, they developed a not dis
similar civilization. The taste in Mexico and
Peru went out in the direction Of huge struc-
lures. In Peru, for example, the erection o.
the royal residence occupied during fifty years
twenty thousand men, while similar resi-
dence in Mexico for a period proportionally
long exhausted the time and strength Of two
hundred thousand. With such figures before
us it is impossible to exaggerate the misery
of the populations.
From the dawn Of civilization in Europe the
condition Of the people has gradually improved
We cannot too highly honor the Greeks and
the Romans for the services they did tc
humanity We owe much to them, and we ought
ever to be willing to acknowledge our debt
| Rut tbaro were elavea in Graece and tho nriv;