Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1909-12-18
WONDERFUL ACHIEVEMENTS.

around us, it is the marvellous development
of human intellect We are living in an age
to which nothing seems impossible
We are Just about to conquer the air and
make flying all everyday occurrence By
means of wireless telegraphy we are about to
annihate distances. 1t is proposed to equip
two ships for a tour around the world, and it
is confidently expected that they will ex-
change messages constantly at a distance of at
least 900 miles from each other, i'll all waters,
in all climates and weathers They are also
expected to maintain communication with
shore points 5000 miles distant.
We are penetrating to the farhest depths
of the universe, weighing the stars and reading
the messages they fash tous. We are search
ing out the invisible and studying the inhnites
iinal organisms that swarm in drop of
water. If reports are true, a young physician
has just succeeded in photographing microbes,
and in time it is supposed we can see in ''liv
ing picture" shows blood corpusces Jostle
with one another in the capiaries of frogs
foot phagocytes devour red globules; and still
more wonderful scenes from the world of
the microscope.
But science is not content with this. 1t goes
beyond the limits of matter and experiments
with the very ether of space, in order to learn
the secrets of creation and solve the riddle of
the universe. And even in this direction some
wonderful discoveries have been made and
equally wonderful deductions suggested. Sir
Oliver Lodge, for instance, has arrived at the
conclusion that ether is a very solid substance
of which matter is merely modification, and
in which it floats, as it were, as very light,
gauzy cloud of vapor, in the air.
The results achieved BY human intellect are
so wonderful, that it seems but natural to ex-
pect still further development. 1t seems nat
ural, for instance, to expect that some day we
may grasp the wonderful secret of nature
which we call gravitation. And when that
secret is unveiled, who knows but that it is
force that can be harnessed Maurice Maeter-
linck has said:
1T is perhaps tractable and doce, even as
light and electricity. 1t is perhaps wholly
spiritual and depends upon very simple cause
which the dsplacing of an object may reveal
cf matter analogous to that which has just
disclosed to us the disconcerting qualities of
radium may lead us straight to the very sources
of the energy and the life of the stars and
from that moment mans lot would be changed
and the earth, definitely saved, would become
eternal 1t would, at our pleasure, draw closer
to, or further from, the centers of heat and
light; it would flee from warnest suns and go
i'll search of the unsuspected fluids, forces and
lives in the orbit of vision and inexhaustble
worlds"
That is. of course, fanciful flight of
thought. But, is it unthinkable in view of the
stage of development already reached, that
human intellect WILL at some time understand
fully the forces that operate through the ether
of space, and through which worlds are held
in their orbits? If not, it is not unthinkable
that the very law of gravitation may be
brought under control
1t should be remembered however, that
human progress is dependent upon certain
conditions. In past ages barbarians have i'll
yaded the parts OF the world that were furthest
advanced, and wiped out almost every evidence
Of civilization, i'll blood. Ancient civilizations,
IN some respects superior TO ours perhaps,
have been swallowed up by barbarism, as At
lantis was engulfed, it is said, in the ocean
The fact reminds us of the necessity of watch
fulness. Our civilization may not be in danger
from Asiatic hordeS, but it may be from the
internal defects, of which the symptoms are
apparent. And unless we succeed in establish
ing justice between nations and between the
classes of which nations consist; unless we
succeed in keeping virtue and morality as our
most precious assets, development will be re-
tarded Civilization will be DESTROYED. In
fidelity and immortality often go together. and
history proves that they are destructive of
liberty, and therefore of civilization
But there is very little reason for misapprc-
hension of the future. Mans destiny is on
ward His education is i'll the hands of One
who never fails, and for that reason faith looks
forward to the perfection of man in intelli-
gence, as well as in wisdom and power, until
he shall be able to regulate even the course of
worlds. If man is eternal there can be no end
to his Development
Why do the Central American nations rage
30 furiously?