The St. Louis Republic., 1900-12-31
Achievements OF THE
NINETEENTH CENTURY.

Walter Z. Sheldon addressed the f. hical
Society yesterday at Memorial Hail on THE
Work of the Nineteenth Century" lie said
in part:
"One hundred years ago to-day the Amer
ican Republic was in its incipiency. The
census had just beer taken and given n to-
tai popula ton of abou: 5,eoo.0b, people. John
Adams was about TO retire from the presi-
deucy. There no art and no literature
and no philosophy over here.
Across the Atlantic. Napoleon Bonaparte
has just made his great march into Italy
and fought the battle OF MarengO. On the
Throne of Letters sa. Goethe at Weinar.
Eut his grea test work had been done. over
in Vienna the art Of music was represented
by the mighty genius OF Beethoven. Africa
was the Dark Continent. China still lay IN
It's twenty centuTie, of slumber Asia WAS
for the most part an unknown world.
The century has gone by and a change
has corie. We call 1t the age OF progress.
And In Il sense il il true tha; more has been
achieved I'm the last hundred years by the
human race than in the preceding 1w"
Years; But tine work has not been quite nl
the kind many people suppose. IL has not
been Il creative age: not period OF intel
lectuai giants In the sphere of philosophy
there has been no one aS cpoch-making as
David Hume or Emmanuel Kant: in poetry
or the drama not one genius equal To that oi
Shakespeare or Dante or Milton or Goethe.
In the sphere of the religious world M one
has come to repi1Ce the might OF the NCs-
legs, John Bunyan or Of Martin l.Ither. Ia
the sphere III natural science 10 discovery
could quite take rank with that of the law
OF gravity put forward by Sir Isaac New
ton. or the astronomy of a Capernicus In
arr. not "a rival has come ON the horizon ia
rank with Rembrand: or Raphael
In the domain of physiology or the study Of
the human body has any discovery been
made equal to that oi the circulation of the
blood ny Harvey? Even in the praC teal
world. il is doubtful If there has been Il
single Invention "a important as that "f the
art of printing. 10y Gutenberg. And in the
realm al discovery. has any one ecual"i
TIE work of Columbus OF Magellan?
The map II Europe has been changed, as
well as N. map of America. The statesmen
of a hundred years ago would not r.coEniZe
it, Bet. even the establishment of the En-
piro OF &c rmany and the Co.lapS" of the old
ana worn-out Holy Roman Empire cannot
comIar. i'll epoch making importance" with
the Republic OF the United States of Amer
lea.
And yet the achievements of our century
equal all those and more. only along another
line. What our age has done has been IN
take the creative work of former centuries
aud put 1t {" a practicai use. by TINS
means il has transformed the surface Of the
earth. Uptorn the old political regime. revo-
Iuii0nized the industrial system. given us a
nty. conc. ption of History, tCld us the story
"f the earth. penetrated the mystery of thr
star-t!ust. developed IA scienC" Of education.
and r..-' of al. linked all The members nf
the : rf'r.D '1ce INTO a common humanity
1t -'. It uf printing: and. whereas. la
the L.: .-, q. y there may have been a hun
drcd tin. t'.' faopl.. with books which they
could r.ia ,p-G ~ the same books. or others
equally go, my he read by a hundred
million pecpc. IL has taken art from the
picture galley ar the private gallery Of
/ he man Of wealth and put il on the walls of
he hurnblcst horne in the land. II adopted
TN. invention of the steam engine. and 80
carrics Us over the earth with the locomotive
and the steamship. IL has given us the great
unitarian science of chemistry; 1t has
dotted the civilized world with handsome
buildings to please the eve and delight the
heart even If il has created no new style
of architecture.
1T has given us in the sphere of medicine
PasteIIr And in thinking Of what IL 10
come from the discovery of this one man.
We feel like bowing the head in awe In !
The domain Of natural science l suppose be- |
yond question. the greatest name to he
handed on from century Will be that
of charles Darwin. Even he took his first
thought rather from Iamarck of the last
century. His work that OF applying |
the thought of another who had gone be
fore him and clinching It with the doctrine |
of natural selection But once for all. he |
has settled for all future time the doctrine |;
of evolution. The age has given us the |
eel. theory in biology. and the great doc |
trine of the conservation of energy.
I'm the sphere of religious thought. so far |
as the ErCIish-speaking world is concerned, ]
I suppose the greatest or acutest mind has
been that Of Cardinal Newman: just as the