INTRODUCTION.

It would require very little argument, therefore—aside from the fact that change is perpetual—to prove that the mental and social needs of the present differ essentially from those of any previous generation. Perhaps at no period in the world's history characterized by so little revolutionary violence has the general mental and social condition of mankind undergone changes as marked and conspicuous as during the last century. In respect to all matters of science, particularly, there has been an immense unfolding; and the mechanical and economic arts have been correspondingly improved. The seven seals of the great geological book have been broken, and its rocky leaves have disclosed the physical history of the earth for millions of years. Powerful telescopes have penetrated the abysses of space, and the grandeur and harmony of the Universe have been revealed to an extent far transcending all previous conception. Furthermore, research in the departments of chemistry, physiology, and comparative anatomy is constantly proving more and more clearly that all things are but parts inseparably connected in one grand System. All these sublime results of science tend to expand the mind beyond the narrow circle of which self is the center, and to unite the soul with those things which it beholds, contemplates, and admires. Man is thus made deeply sensible that he is a mere atom in infinite space, surrounded by beings and creations unspeakably more important than himself. As he contemplates the widespread fields of creation, teeming with tokens of impartial favor, a flame of philanthropy original: "philanthropy"; here meaning a general love for all humanity is kindled in his soul that consumes all narrow prejudices and selfish inclinations. He sympathizes with universal Man as the great Body of which he is a mere organ.

Such are the moral and social tendencies of the science of the age, even when considering it from a more abstract point of view. But from the same source, more important influences indirectly arise. From the materials of science, the busy hand of mechanism is forming filaments to bind together the extremities of each nation; it is developing resources, exchanging commodities, and harmonizing the interests of every climate. Iron steeds A metaphorical reference to steam locomotives, energized by the stimulus of expanding vapor steam, are plunging through the ocean, measuring the distance between the two hemispheres by the lapse of a few days, or prancing to and fro in the earth, facilitating exchanges and promoting friendly intercourse between all communities and people. The imponderable elements have been pressed into service; by the subtle agency of the electric fluid electricity, man converses with his neighbor at a distance of a thousand miles with the same ease as two people would converse a few yards apart. The veins, arteries, and nerves of the great Body of humanity are thus being developed in the form of steamships, railroads, and magnetic telegraphs; its muscles and sinews are being unfolded in the form of labor-saving and productive machinery. All science and art tend powerfully to extend these fibers and channels of communication throughout the whole earth. They aim to form the whole race into one harmonious Body, possessing one common spring of action, one common social and theological system, and bound together with one chain of sympathy running through all its diverse parts.

Such, we say, are the conspicuous and powerful tendencies of all the scientific and artistic attainments of the age. But to these tendencies there exist the most powerful obstructions, which have thus far defied all attempts of phi—