Page:Robert William Cole - The Struggle for Empire; A Story of the Year 2236 (1900).djvu/19

Rh from their labours. The result was that the study of ancient and modern Languages and Literature, of Theology, History, Metaphysics, Antiquities, and the fruitless speculations of Philosophy, received less attention every year, until at last they were altogether abandoned.

The vast amount of intellect that had been hitherto wasted on these branches of learning was then wholly concentrated on the study of Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics, and Engineering, as being the only subjects that gave an adequate return for the labour spent upon them. The result was beyond the dreams of the most sanguine of the pioneers of science. Every day the world was astonished by the news of some marvellous scientific discovery. A telephotoscope, or apparatus for seeing at a distance by means of an electric current, which had long been eagerly sought for by the older scientists, was soon invented and brought to practical use. Then the other problems which