Show HOW PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE IN THE popular science monthly for august the following thoughtful paper appears the truth of ef which will be appreciated by most of our readers it adds a little more to the volume of evidence that the opinion of the multitude is not a test of the truth of any principle and that the opposition of the masses is no proper guide in estimating a man a doctrine or a measure the study of all civilizations proves that all progress po gress has been accomplished complis hed by a small number of the higher minds the mass has done nothing more than profit by the advance it does not even like to see it ii extended and the greatest thinkers or inventors have often been martyrs yet all the generations the whole past of a race bloom out in these geniuses they do not appear by chance or miracle but represent a long synthesis to favor their birth and growth is to favor the birth ot of a progress by which all mankind will be benefited if we should allow ourselves to be blinded by our dreams of ef social equality we should ourselves be the first victims of it equality can only exist in inferiority to bring about a reign of equality in the world it would be necessary gradually to pull all that gives value to a race down dowd to the level of what in it is lowest it would require ages to raise the intellectual level of the lowest peasants up to that of the genius of a Lavol lavoisier La voiser ser while a second and the stroke of the guillotine is sufficient to cestr destroy ay such a brain but while the part dart of superior men in the development of a civilization is considerable it is not quite what it is generally believed to be their action I 1 repeat consists in synthesizing all the efforts of a race their discoveries are always the result of a long series of prior discoveries they build an edifice with stones which others have previously hewn historians Historia BS fancy they must couple the name of a man with every invention yet among the great inventions which have transformed the world like those of printing gunpowder and electric telegraphy there is not one of which it can be said that it was created by a single man of similar character is the part which great statesmen have played they coula without doubt destroy a society or disturb its evolution but itis it is not given to them to change its course the he genius of a cromwell or a napoleon could not perform such great conquerors might destroy cities men and empires by sword and fire as a child could burn a museum filled with treasures of art but this destructive tive power should not subject us to illustrations respecting the grandeur of their achievements rhe fhe work of great political men is durable only when like baar or richelieu they direct their efforts according to the demands of the moment the true cause of their success is then generally long anterior to themselves the really great men in politics are those who anticipate the demands that are going to arise the events for which the past has prepared and point int out the way to be followed rhey they also like the great inventors the results of a long previous work of what in the eye of philosophy is history as the books tell it composed except of the long recital of tho the struggles endured by men to create an ideal adore lt it and then destroy it and have such ideals any more value in the eyes of pure science than the mirage of the desert there have been however great enthusiasts creators of such mirages who have profoundly profound transformed the world they stir still from their tombs hold the minds of multitudes under the sway away of their thoughts while not mistaking the significance of their achievements let us not forget that they would not have succeeded in accomplishing what they did if they had not unconsciously ly ed and expressed the dominant ideal of their race and their time itis it is in fact ideas and consequently consequent ily those who incarnate them that lead the world they rise at first under vague forms and float in the air gradually changing their aspect till some day they appear under th form of a great man or a great act it is of little account Rs as determining the force with which they shall act whether they are true or false history teaches us that the most chimerical illusions have excited more enthusiasm among men than the best demonstrated truths such illusions are only shadows but nevertheless have to be respected through them our fathers were hopeful and in their heroic and heedless course they have brought us out of barbarism and led us to the point where we stand today mankind has expended most of its efforts not in the pursuit of truth but of error it has not been able to reach the chimerical aims it was pursuing but in pursuing them it has realized a progress that it was not seeking |