mind and the adult mind, which did not exist when the century was young, and which would never have existed had not a better method—the outcome of physical investigations—been adopted in the study of mind. To this result the science of anthropology has contributed in no mean degree. To-day we study man not as an abstraction, not as a creature dogmatically proclaimed to be only "a little lower than the angels," but as he has actually manifested himself historically, and is now manifesting himself, in the sum of his habits, aptitudes, passions, customs, superstitions, imaginations, and achievements. We are at last taking to heart the advice of the ancient oracle, "Know thyself!" We see our true selves mirrored in the life of the race to which we belong.
In view of the vast accumulations of knowledge by which our age has been enriched, and of all that has been done within the last few generations for the betterment of human life, it might seem idle and paradoxical to doubt that the future is full of the brightest promise for our race. We have no disposition to join the prophets of evil of whom the present day possesses not a few. It is well, however, to remember that there is a double aspect to almost every advance in knowledge and in the perfection of the arts. Every gain tends to the disuse of some portion of human faculty, and unless it calls other portions into a more than compensating activity there is really no resulting benefit, so far as the development of the individual is concerned, and there may even be a loss. It would take us too far to illustrate this in any detail; but it is quite evident that many useful inventions, such as improved means of transit, the telephone, etc., while they quicken the pace of life, do not prompt either to physical or to intellectual exertion, and that the vast provision made to-day for the entertainment and amusement of the multitude has little educative value and may even tend to the injury of the reflective powers. Amid the ever-increasing multiplicity of luxuries and novelties of every kind that are spread before the people to tempt the outer senses, the needs of the inner man are apt to be thrust aside and forgotten. In the illustrated books that are prepared for children so much is exhibited to the eye that nothing is left to the imagination. It sometimes seems almost possible that the modern world might be choked by its own riches, and human faculty dwindle away amid the million inventions that have been introduced to render its exercise unnecessary.
Further than this there is a tendency, which we think is already beginning to be well defined, to effect a radical differentiation between those who are concerned in carrying on the work of the world as thinkers and inventors and those who are only concerned in using the improved appliances placed in their hands. Some of our readers will remember the horribly grim development suggested in Mr. H. G. Wells's fantastical romance, The Time Machine—a degraded humanity inhabiting an externally perfected world. Without taking seriously so horrible a possibility, what we seem to see is that the times call for very special efforts to spread the knowledge and culture which are the product of the age, so that the intellectual life of the whole mass of society may be quickened. The leaven of thought and knowledge should be so applied as to work everywhere; in order that, while there may still be leaders of thought moving in regions inaccessible to the multitude, there may at least be no considerable sections of society
