The sun., 1902-11-09
4 Golden Age,


appears in Hdrpor's M0gasine for the
present month. 1t has the beautiful
lucidity ana nice sense of proport ion
which always distinguish the literary
work of Mr.. FIsKE and bring clearly to
the popular comprehension the most
profound questions Of scientific thought
That is. his style is the modern style, and
itsrl l. one of the products of the his
toricai evolution and intellectual illuini-
nation of which he writes in this essay
J"lIN fiSkE was man OF rare simplicity
ann genuinencss of character who. for
getting himself, without trace Of self
consciousness, was wholly absorbed in
his effort to obtain n mastery of his SUBJ
ject. i'll order TO elucidate IL. Thence
comes the charm Of his style.
As Mr.. FIskE starts out bv saving in
this essay. il is a commonplace to speak
of the age in which we are living as WON
derful in its material and intellectual
progress. Between the nineteenth GEN.
fury and all past time there is a gulf so
broad that it may be said 10 mark a
separation between two distinct epochs
in the history of man. The chief charac-
teristics of this new era are defined nv
Mr.. FIsKE as, on the material side, the
creation Of mechanical force. and on
the intellectual side. the unification of
nature"
Before the introduction Of steam the
world was very much the same as it had
been in the time Of Nineveh and Babylon
The domestication Of oxen and horses
in the dim historic past had given ac-
celcration to human progress. but the
movement was slow and inconsideral "a
az compared with that which started
under the impulsion of steam. Trans
portation by land and by sea had been
the same since CfsAR's day, and, gem
orally, the characteristics Of Civilza-
ton had continued unchanged, with
mans own muscular energy, supple
mented by the strength Of beasts and
the Use of comparatively primitive
tools in his hands, doing the wor,: Of
the worlds production. From JOSEPH
BLACK with his discovery Of latent heat
to JAMES WATT. with his invention of
the steam-engine, down to the latest
discoveries in electricity, there has
been the unbroken sequence of achieve
ment which has transformed the whole
face of the world and introduced a, new
and distinct era.
A man can now travel the whole
length of the earth's circumference 10
less time than it would have taken
HERoDoTus to go the length of the Medi-
terranean. Not only have numerous
petty manufactures, formerly carried
on in separate households, given place
TO gigantic factories, but the organiza-
tion Of every industry has been pro-
foundly modified by railways and tele-
graphs" Combination and concentra-
ticn of the forces of production and dis
tribution, we may add. have been made
possible and inevitable. and in the trust
system, as it is called loosely and mac
curately. has begun a new development
against which blind resistance will be rs
hopeless IA was the original struggle
against the emancipation of mankind
brought about by the introduction of the
steam-engine. Ecclesiastical opposition
to the progress Of science was not less
futile. The world is going to know all it
can find out and to utilize every energy
of which it can avail itself to push along
the progress Of mankind.
Even Mr.. FISKE's familiarity with the
precise achievements Of chemistry had
not " yet begun to dcadcn the feeling of
stupeticd amazcment when he re-
f1ected that scarcely century has
elapsed since DR.. PRIEsTLEY informed
mankind of the existence Of oxygen,
The laboratory has now created more
than lOO0OO distinct substances which
never existed before and never would
have come into existence hut for the
human mind" With the discovery and
PRONUNCIATION Of the doctrirc f evolu-
ti6n, n product of tho nine rro h CEN
tury. has como an INTEL ctu. .. 'velop-
mcnt which broadly SCI tie This era
from all past time. We iG not need to
present the evidence Of tire marvellous
transformation as IL is marshalled by
Mr.. FIsKE, for every man Of intelligence
knows Of it. Tho whole current of hui
man thought has been changed That
doctrine has not only rcvolutionized
thought, but its very terms have entered
into the common speech, The human
mind has been lifted into new world.
History is regarded in new light and
a new method has been introduced into
its study. We have learned that the
same kind of forces were at work a
hundred million years ago that are at
work to-day, and that the lessons gained
from our familiar experiences may safely
be applied to tho explanation Of phe-
noniena the most remote in time AS we'll
a. in space.
This modern method we must apply
also to the study Of contemporary events