and their number and individual tonnage are constantly increasing.
These vessels cruise among all the important seaports of the world,
and form a system of intercommunication almost as complete as the
system of railroads in the United States. They bring distant ports
of the world very close together, and make possible that ready
interchange of material products, and that facility of personal
intercourse which it is one of the aims of civilization to bring
about. From a commercial point of view, London is nearer to New
York than San Francisco, and more intimately allied with her.

The evident result of all this is to make the people of the world
one large community, in which, though many nationalities are numbered,
many tongues are spoken, many degrees of civilization and wealth
are found, yet, of all, the main instincts are the same: the same
passions, the same appetites, the same desire for personal advantage.

Not only does this admirable system of intercommunication bring all
parts of the world very closely together, but it tends to produce
in all a certain similarity in those characteristics and habits
of thought that pertain to the material things of life. We are
all imitative, and therefore we tend to imitate each other; but
the inferior is more apt to imitate the superior than vice versa.
Particularly are we prone to imitate those actions and qualities
by which others have attained material success. So it is to be
expected, it is already a fact, that the methods whereby a few
great nations attained success are already being imitated by other
nations. Japan has imitated so well that in some ways she has already
surpassed her models.

With such an example before her, should we be surprised that China