The Portland daily press., 1874-06-18
The Coming Age,

| WneneVeIItne udy COMES says the SATURDAY
| Reuiew, if it ever does come, at which the in
dustrial power of England vanshes along
with its coal mines, we might perhaps recon-
cile ourselves with comparatively little reluc-
| tance, because without disgrace, to descend
| into the position of a second rate power. Ma
| tional decline when it results from demoraliza-
| ton is of course humiliating; but if it were
| due to disappearance of the physical condi-
tlons essential to the greatness of a country,
submission with tolerably good grace might
be the best policy. What is true of any par
| ticular nation would be true of the world.
! There are changes beyond the power of man
| to arrest, and, long before our planet has
| dropped into the sun, it will have become an
unsuitable abode for civilized beings. Proba-
| bly, the most highly organized animals would
| be the first to feel the change, and would
\ slowly depart from the scene, to leave the
world in its second childhood, and allow the
| ''monstrous eft," who was once its ruler, to
resume his old pre-eminece. Before that
| happens, however, 1t would be as well to pre-
| pare ourselves for the coming event. The
| last age of man need not be merely repeti-
ton of his barbarous infancy. Some of tine
/ lessons which he has learnt might enable him
| TO decline with dignity, and to grow weak
| without becoming ierocious. There might be
| consultations in the old age of the race. Our
| IenUto icsc1nd~nts- with indeed have many
| causes for humility. In their time the ma
| terial advantages of civilization will have dis
appeared. They will preserve a railway en-
CINE or a fragment OF telegraphic wire as mys-
terious implements which had a meaning 10
the ancients; and will visit with reverence
the mouths of those huge caverns from which
the extinct mineral was formerly extracted
for purposes of fuel. Possibly, indeed, some
of our machines will be invested with super
stitious awe; for superstition, even OF a de-
graded kind, is a growth which has not yet
been extirpated, and which may possibly be
expected to put forth new developments as
the intellect grows weaker. For not only
mechanical contrivarces, bnt the intellectual
achievements of our day will become unin-
teligble as the vgor Of The race declines. In
the museums of that dag will he preserved
specimens of examination papers, and men
will tell each other with wonder that in dis
tant ages not only the most learned, but even
lads who were plucked at the universities,
were able to understand those mysterious
symbols. As the impulse which formerly
created the fine arts declines, our descendants
will be reduced to merely imitation, and then
abandoning even that attempt, will be content
to admire such relics as they are able
to preserve. In those days radicals and
conservatives will change places. Men of
sanguine temperament will hope that it NAV
still be possible to keep alive for few geper-
atons the arts and the political and philo-
sophical theories bequeathed by more Wig
orous race; while the respondent and melan-
choly will acquiesce in changes from which il
will be generally recognized that no real inn
provemenS can be anticipated. War, it NAV
be hoped, will be discouraged, because the
hot passions characteristic of youthful devel-
opment will grow gradually weaker, and the
wisest statesmen will admit that the nearest
approach 10 stagnation is the greatest blessing
which can be anticipated.
M fha atta A.
adequate portrait of the supposed period. it
has of late been very fashionable for imagna-
tive writers to draw fancful pictures Of the
coming age; and, to say the truth, it does
not appear that any great strain upon the
imagination is generally implied in such ef-
forts. For the most part, the changes con-
templated by these travellers to Utopia ale of
very simple and obvious kind. They look
forward to few scientific discoveries, and to
imagine the results of mankind acquiring the
command of new powers of nature, and max.
| ing uses of forces which are to electricity
what electricity is to steam. Undoubtedly il
we could travel through the air. or kill our
fellow-creatures by the million instead of the
thousand, the external form of society would
be considerably changed; but it does not fol-
low that mems characters would be essential
ly different il they could take a mornings
trip across the Atlantic as easily as they can
now pay visit to Brighton. Neither do the
various theories which have been worked out
as to the possible effect of extending woman's
rights strike us as very interesting. IF, wher-
ever there are now man and woman, there
is to be at some future time couple of men,
things might be better or worse; but, except
slight increase Of the general monotony, we
do not know that any very remarkable effect
would be necessarily produced. And there
fore we venture to advise the next construc
tor of fanciful future to try his hand at de-
pictng society in a state OF pronounced and
recognized decay. The moral need not be al
together useless. He might, for example,
show us to what extent the belief in indefi-
mite progress, so frequently invoked by poll
ticians, really colors our habitual views of
life; and how far they would be altered by
substituting an entirely different conception.
And further, he might incidentally throw
some light upon the problem, not altogether
an uninteresting one, how far symptoms of
such a change are already manifest to an
acute mind. 1t would be possible to make
out very plausible case to show that our or
dinary boasting rests upon a very insecure
foundation, that we have already lost some
powers once enjoyed by the race, and that
even our most unquestionable achievements
are compatible with a theory that the world
Is going in a very different direction rom
that which we too complaeently assume 10 be
inevitable.