Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 30.djvu/841

Rh incessant and impregnable, the end to which it is tending remains hidden to us; but we can discern from its beginnings the direction into which it is to turn the principles on which popular life has hitherto rested. For this purpose we need only to carry out further the changes which have been already begun. We can then easily perceive that, in the age of the reign of the sciences, severe manual labor, by which man has been very hardly and still is considerably oppressed in the struggle for existence, will be more and more reduced by the increasing utilization of natural forces in mechanical service, that the work that falls to man will become continually more of a mental character, while it will be his part to direct the work of iron laborers (or machines) but not himself to perform rough bodily labor. We see, further, that in the scientific age the necessaries of life and luxuries will be supplied with far less human toil, and that a much larger share of these products of labor wall fall to each man at the expense of less working-time. We shall see, also, that, through scientific and properly directed cultivation, a very much larger quantity of food-products will be obtained from the soil than heretofore, and that the number of men devoted to this branch of industry may be correspondingly diminished. We shall find that through the improvement and greater expedition of communication and transportation an ever-more ready exchange of the products of different lands and climates will be made possible by which the life of men will be rendered more enjoyable and their existence assured against the consequences of local scarcities. It also appears very probable that chemistry in connection with electrotechnics will some time succeed in composing real food-substances out of the inexhaustible abundance of their elements everywhere present, and thereby make the number of those who may be supported independent of the ultimate productive capacity of the soil. This progressively augmenting facility in obtaining the material means of existence will, by the shortening of the working-time that will have to be applied to that purpose, afford to men the leisure they will need for their better mental cultivation; the better perfected and cheapened making of mechanical reproductions of artistic creations will also prepare the way for bringing these works into the cottages, and will make art, beautifying the life and elevating the moral standard, accessible to all mankind, instead of to privileged classes only. We are strongly of the conviction that the light of science, penetrating more deeply into the whole of human society, combats in the most effective manner degrading superstitions and destructive fanaticism, and that we shall be able therefore to go on in proud satisfaction with the building up of the age of science, in the sure prospect that it will lead mankind to a better moral and material condition than it has been or is enjoying to-day.

Our complacency on this subject has been disturbed very recently by gloomy pessimistic views which have been formed in learned circles