Nothing of
this sort has come to pass--not happiness, nor social peace, nor
energy for good has increased."
Naturally, from a superficial point of view, it is discouraging
to see poverty, ostentation of wealth, injustice and the love of
money increasing, instead of declining, with the great
developments in human power.
Suppose it had been said two hundred years ago that some day one
single man, with a loom, would be able to make cloth enough
to clothe scores in one day; that a few children working in a
stocking factory would be able to produce more stockings than a
million women could knit.
It would, of course, have been prophesied that when these great
inventions came everybody would be well clothed, every woman and
child would have warm stockings--and so on.
But we find, as society's powers increase, as machinery improves,
and the means of producing and distributing wealth develop, that
the struggle for existence and the display of avarice are
accentuated.
The pessimistic man, observing these conditions, is filled with
despair for the future of humanity. He predicts worse and worse
times ahead, while he longs for the peaceable old days before the
steam engine had appeared among us. ----
Now, in order to map out a parable, we must ask you to do a good
deal of supposing.
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