Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-12-29

live TO solve, the northwest, passage. was
accomplished by Mcclure and demon
strated TO be as impracticablC as Cook sup
posed 1t to be- The northeast passage, too.
mas been made by Nordensk1old who in
the vega circumnavigated the Europe Asia
continent. The search for Sir John Frank
I'm leo to the exploration of the frozen arch
lpeiago north of America and the discovery
or the north magnetic pole Since then tha
pole itself has been the goal Of Arctic ex-
piorers; Nansen has traversed Greenland
, reary mas round out that 1t Is island,
whlle Nansen and Cagni have come within
Tess than degrees of the pole itself Be
yond the line to which Cooks ctrcumnayi
cation restricted the possible Antarctic con-
SiehI several have penetrated and for the
irst time men have landed and wtntered ON
the Antarctic coast. In America discovery
mas! mas oeen followed so soon by settlement
that the memory has quickly disanpeara5
and even the remarkable tourney 81 Tawis
and Clarke up the Missouri into Oregon 10
almost forgotten. The same Is true OF
< a,d whose interior deserts have been
crossed by daring explorers under terrible
hardships, and of good part of Asia The
opening up OF Africa however 10 hardly
second IN Importance to the circumnayiga-
s ,on H Ha r .le cape OF Good Hope Fifty years
ago parely the rim of the dark continent
was Known. Now, thanks to Burton and
spoke and Livingstone and Stanley every
one oi us great riddles has been solved, the
sources or the Nile. the water system of the
Soilso and the Niger and the Zambesi; the
WARS ana the mountains OF the moon II.
mas mas oeen crossed from south to north. and
from west to east across its ureates+
breadth. while the crossing from the Conr
go TO the Zanzibar coast has hecoma q
commonplace Journey. The powers of Eu
themselves and are pushing in with raiIroad
ana telegraph. There are no more great
geographical discoveries possible ON 1anS.
pu. science has turned its attention to the
potton or the sea, and the sounding leaS
Is charting the ocean beds
In All BranChea of Ua.~usu-
New methods and points of view have en-.
tered into every branch of learning Thu
discovery Of Sanskrit led to the compari-
son OF languages with each other and tbs
establishment of their relationship. The
principle of comparison was extended to tho
past as well. ard the historical method of
investigation has spread to science also. In
collecting and establishing facts the aid Of
experimental science has been called in. The
AID or the Psychologist. for instance has
been needed by the philologist to unravel
the problem Of human speech while the
philosopher has called upon him to explain
the workings of the human brain. Humber
aids have not been scorned With nick and
shovel the archaeologist has brought to
light the ancient civilization of Egypt and
the implements of primitive man; he has
Dug out the Hum of Priam and laid bare
the Roman forum and read from the CLAW
tablets the forgotten language of the Assy-
rians. In no age has the pursuit of learn
Ing been so general: in no age have the
means for It's attainment books libraries.
museums, teaching institutions. been SO
plentiful.
In the domains Of letters the nineteenth
century has well held its own with It's pre-
decessoTs. 1t may not show any name rf
the very first rank. for Goethe the poet,
can hardly be included in 1t. but no past
century in any literature can match the
list that ranges from Scott to Tennyson
from Victor Hugo to Renan. from Heine to
Mommsen. Its philosophy extends from He
ge! to Herbert Spencer. In music Il had
the greatest of all masters. Beethoven
Mendelssohn. Chopin and Wagner. In art
alone, credtable as it's productions have
been. has It failed to approach the great
works of the past.
1t has been a century OF such astounding
achievement that 1t Is perhaps natural to
believe that there will be no other equal to
1t. and in more than one branch of science
men hold the opinion that the fundamental
problems have been solved and that the fu-
ture can develop only along the lines mark
ed out in the nineteenth century. Past his
tory. however shows no limits to the ca
pacities for development of the human race
and the historian of the twentieth century
may have fully as wonderful tale to tell.