Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1900-09-27
MANS PROGRESS.
By Hon. Arthur Balfour.


I suppose that, at this moment, if we
were allowed a vision of the embryonic
forces which are predestined most po-
tently to affect the future of mankind,
we Should have to look for them not in
the Legislature nor in the press. nor
on the platform, nor in the schemes Of
practical statesmen, nor the dreams of
political theorists, but in the laborato-
ries Of scientific students whose names
are but little in the mouths of men,
who cannot themselves forecast the re-
suits of their own abors and whose
theories would scarce be understood by
those whom they will chiefly benefit.
I do not propose to attempt any
sketch of Jul gains from this most
fruitful union between science and in
vention. I may, however, permit my
self one pa~renthetic mark on an as
pect of it hich is likely more and
more to thrust itself unpleasantly upon
our attention.
Marvellous as is the variety and in
genuity of modern industrial methods,
they almost all depend in the last re-
sort upon our supply of useful power;
and our supply of useful power is prin-
cipally provided for us by methods
which, so far as / can see, have altered
not at all in principle, and strangely lit
tie in detail, since the lays of Watt.
Coal, as we all know, is the chief res
ervoir of energy from which the world
1T present draws, and from which we
in our country must always draw; but
Dur main contrivance for utilizing it is
the steam engine, and, by its essential
nature, the steam engine is extrava-
gantly wasteful. So that, when we are
told as if it was something to be proud
of, that this is the age Of steam, we
may admit the fact, but "a hardly
share the satisfaction.
Our coal fields, as we know too well,
are limited. We certainly cannot in
crease them. The boldest legislator
would hesitate to limit their employ
ment for of domestic indus
try. So the only possible alternative is
10 economic our method of consuming
them. And for this there would, in
Iced, seem to be a sufficiency Of room.
Let a second Watt arise. Let him
BRING into general use some mode OF
extracting energy from fuel which
shall only waste so per cent. of it, and
@! your coal fields, as sources OF profit,
are doubled at once. The nope seems a
modest one, but it is not yet fulfilled;
Ind therefore it is hat we must quail
fly the satisfaction with which at the
md of the century we contemplate the
lnbroken course of it's Industrial tri-
lmphs.
With such remote speculations we
are not now concerned. It is enough for
rs to take note how rapidly the pro-
1igious progress of recent discovery
aas increased the drain upon the natu-
raj wealth of old manufacturing coun-
tries, and especially of Great Britain,
and at the same time, frankly to recog-
aize that it is only by new inventions
.hat the collateral evils of old inven-
lions can be mitigated; that to go back
IS impossible; that our only hope lies
IN a further advance.
No century has seen SO great a
change in our intellectual apprehen-
sion of the world in which we live.
Our whole point of view has changed.
The mental framework in which we ar
range the separate facts in the world
Of men and things is quite a rev
framework. The spectacle of the uni
verse presents itself now in a wholly
changed perspective. We not only see
more, but we see differently.
The discoveries in physics and in
chemistry, which have borne their
share in thus re-creating for US the
evolution of the past, are in process Of
giving US quite new ideas as to the in
ner nature of that material whole of
which the worlds traversing space is
but an insignificant part.
Differences of quality once thought
ultimate are constantly being resolved
into differences of motion or conf1gura-
ton. What were once regarded as
things are now known to be move
ments.
Phenomena apparently so wide apart
as light, radiant e a and electricity,
are, as it is unnecessary to remind you,
now recognized as substantially iden-
teal. From the arrangements of atoms
In molecule, not less than their intrin-
sic nature, flow the characteristic at
tributes of the compound.
The atom itself has been pulverized,
and speculation is forced to admit as
a possibility that even the chemical ell
ements themselves may be no more
than varieties of a single substance.