New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-04-30
TIE AGE or GREAT EXPECTATION.
From he satnrdaa Rerielc.


Il is perfectly truo hat our age has thousand
times The resources Of any that preceded H. bnt the
question still remains. Does II Use them 20
thousand times better purpose = tie must be IN
decd % sturdy optimls- who can BRING himself To
answer shat question in the affirmative. That Il IL
an age of great opportunities there can he no doubt;
that Il is no simply what c1iics like Carlyle and
Mr. Ku,kiu have represented Il 10 be, " the age Of
mOney-bags and cant. SCOT, hubbub AID uguness,'
may Dr. granted nor need Il be denied that m such
high matters As science, religion aud 40.
cal organization " great thing IN the air.
But ma these respects 1t can only be called
az best the Ige OF great expectations, and great
eyrectatIOns are SOM times very slow in ge tin
allied, after the precedent Of Mr.. Mica Sier. We
may perhaps be on The eve OF the mlIIehnluhi' but
ts vet We 4 -cern NJ signs Of the dawn. There Is
one very simple way OF testing the comparative
moral value o. our progress. Of the sudden and
enormous change III our external and material lie
between 49, and l-s2, a change beyond All eX-
ample or idea or expectation of any previous period
in the worlds history. there can be no manner OF
doubt But II MAY well be- questioned II England
was not Is much Wiser stronger. and better m 49,
than IN 1862, and IN l6s than II los2 AS 10 Is BET
ter now than IL l7-2; and If we we're
70 20 further back the change II these
respects would be still more noticeable or again,
compare England with other European countries
the material progress has been very much more rapid
here thai anywhere else, while IN some countries,
IKE SPAN. there has been hardly any az ali. " Has
the relative position OF these nations III he scale OF
true civilization altered So very mucAf Not nc
aiw II from moral we pass 10 scientific progress, lt
Is obvious that 90 place the narVeiIou, tools OF mod
eru science beside those Used by COpernIcus OF
Calico would be Ike putting modern HOhclad Dy
the side Of Chinese JUNK Bat VIII IL b
pretended that IL scientific genius the age even
OIL Faraday and Darwin towers above that
of Newton and ucIscLcl. or OF Bacon, LelD-
uitz and Dcscartesf You may raise your
mechanical apparatus of science a thousandioid,
YOU do not double your scientific genius once"
still ess could II be piau,ibly main aimed that wo
have advanced IN philosophy or III art. OF IN tho
qua nv OF our literature. immense Is the Increase
IL quantity, When the press turns out more matter
M egbe ,ype every Gay tnan II Or. ) hns ms tne
II turned out year, or III Nudhe-p -drrs time IN
q century We have no. eXCe.ed Mozart or 81 eth
oven al music. OF Reynolds and Galnesborough IN
uaiut NJ not % speak OF the great painters OF An
au earlier age. 60 We are "a much superior ~ mate
rial appliances t. thu of lIitOns day and New
ton. ,iaV a. they were to Atghans or Lulus. Are
We equally superior ia cultivation Of tram, heart
or = raoteI, 10 the contemporaries Of Milton aud
Newton y
II NAV perhaps be argued that. If no serious claim
can he preferred 70 any moral superiority al al cor
responding 10 our huge material advance, We nave
Al lea,t gained much IN all mat adds 10 h grace
and charm. the loom If social hie.N But such
claim l., hardly more admissible than the other.
AN il really ID, maintained that lie hundred Or
Two hundred years ago. before steam. erctncltf or
photography existed. was 50 cramped and hrlpless
a thing so borne and Ill provided Soueho" ~
was not In some ways indeed, this very 'aine
material advance, with all the hurry and skurry or
modern lift such a phrase may BE- alOwed-has
served 10 rub on the bloom, rs Nj. W. Il. Greg vas
never tined OF reminding us.