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THE AGE OF MATERIAL PROGRESS.
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the productive forces of society. This enormous augmentation of the power of production is one of the most significant features of the age.
The history of this wonderful age, so different from any preceding age, cannot yet be written, for no one can tell whether the epoch is just opening or is already well advanced. It may well be that we have already seen the greatest surprises of the age, and that the epoch is nearing its culmination,[1] and that other than material development—let us hope intellectual and moral development—will characterize future epochs.
- ↑ "It is probable," says Professor Ely, "that as we, after more than two thousand years, look back upon the time of Pericles with wonder and astonishment, as an epoch great in art and literature, posterity two thousand years hence will regard our era as forming an admirable and unparalleled epoch in the history of industrial invention."—French and German Socialism in Modern Times.
