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THE ROMAN JOURNAL
229

propagated itself without newspapers, almost without books, by the spoke word; and in less than two centuries it extended to the most distant lands, and in those lands it penetrated to the deepest strata.

Let us draw the conclusion that the advancement of humanity is not so entirely bound up with particular conditions, that it cannot be effected without them. What is right always ends by coming to pass. Whatever admiration wwe feel for the marvellous discoveries which have transformed our existence, let us not forget that, strictly speaking, they can be dispensed with, that men lived for long without them, and that, without them, they often arrived at the same results to which they lead us to-day. By diverse roads the world advances towards the goal assigned to it, and nothing prevents its attainment. In one way or another, sometimes a little more slowly, sometimes a little faster, it always accomplishes its destinies: fata viam inveniunt.