history strikingly illustrates our point. A century back, and we
are already in a strange land. The prominent points of present
civilization were yet unthought of. No bands of iron united
distant cities; no nerves of wire flashed electric speech.
The wealth of that day could not buy many articles conducive of
comfort, such as now grace the homes of the poor. The contrast
is still more apparent when we recall another of the countless
centuries of the past. England, with Europe, was but just
awakening to modern life. Printing had but just been invented.
Great discoveries had been made, and mankind was but just
beginning those first feeble efforts which were to bring to us
our modern comforts. But a millennium of years ago, and the
foundation of English civilization had but just been laid by the
union of the rude Germanic tribes of the Saxons and the Angles.
Similar results attend the ultimate analysis of any
civilization. It was but yesterday that wandering hordes, bound
together by the loose cohesion of tribal organization, and
possessing but the germ of modern enlightenment, held sway in
what is now the fairest portion of the world: and we, the
descendants of these rude people, must reflect that the end is
not yet--that the onward march of progress is one of ever
hastening steps--and that, in all human probability, the sun of
a thousand years hence will shine on a people whose civilization
will be as superior to ours as the light of day exceeds the
mellow glow of a moon-lit night.

If such are the changes of but a few centuries, what must we not
consider the changes to have been during the countless ages that
have sped away since man first appeared on the scene! The early
Greek and Roman writers were much nearer right when they