But it was all a dream--a dream, we suspect, about the
earth as well as about humanity. While we indulged in these pleasing
speculations on society, the scientists of our generation were placing
beyond question or argument the doctrine of the indestructibility of
energy and matter and we may be sure that while there is immortal life
there must be immortal energies as its companions through time, and they
will never be less powerful than they are today or were in the morning
of the world. There will be no weakening of that mighty God-begotten
brotherhood of elemental powers; and, while we cannot hope that by the
wastage of time these powers will be feebler, we may hope that by an
understanding of them we may get mastery over them. The wild elephant
of the woods, with a greater strength than man's, has yet been trained
to be his servant, and that arcane power we call electricity, which, if
it shoots out of its channel, shrivels up the body of man, is now our
servant. So we may hope, too, that the elemental energies in humanity
itself, which break out in wars and Armageddons, will come under
control.
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