Page:The Wreck of a World - Grove - 1890.djvu/22

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one virtue that may be said to have characterised the twentieth century and to have redeemed it from utter worthlessness was a devotion to the cause of progress. True it was material progress that was chiefly sought, but it was urged by the economic school (and not without force) that intellectual and moral progress would necessarily accompany each advance of the comforts and conveniences of life. In the United States, at all events, the one duty inculcated on every child from its earliest years was that of advancing the material welfare of the world. This was our rule of life; this our religious and moral code; this stood for honour, patriotism, duty and all those fine abstractions which really do seem to have influenced the actions of our grandfathers. Now the profession that most lends itself to triumphs over nature and shows in a practical manner the advances made by man is undoubtedly that of engineer-