----
We shall humbly beg for information from the superior inhabitants
of other worlds, and perhaps wait with impatience for release
from duty here which shall take us to a higher planetary
existence. If we look backward at all, we shall consider our
present selves simply as refined cannibals, who lived upon the
labor and the suffering of our fellows instead of feeding upon
their bodies. ----
It may seem ridiculous to predict that the time will come when
the intelligent man's interests will be nearly all outside of the
earth on which he lives.
But to the savage of the Congo, squatted beside a decaying
hippopotamus, gorging himself with the meat, with not a thought
beyond that carcass or beyond the edge of the river, it would
seem preposterous to speak of men whose interests range out over
the entire world.
We look upon a man as very small to-day unless all knowledge
interests him, unless his mind roams daily all over the civilized
globe, sharing in the interests of all nations, in the
literature, the discoveries and the activities of all nations.
To-day we, with our minds on little, material problems, our
thoughts centred on this one little planet, as we lead our
selfish lives, are like that Congo savage hacking away at the
dead hippopotamus.
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