Homer’s world, restricted to less than a drummer’s circuit, was nevertheless immense, surrounded by a thin veneer4 of universe — the Stream of Ocean. But how it has shrunk! To-day, precisely5 charted, weighed, and measured, a thousand times larger than the world of Homer, it is become a tiny speck6, gyrating to immutable7 law through a universe the bounds of which have been pushed incalculably back. The light of Algol shines upon it — a light which travels at one hundred and ninety thousand miles per second, yet requires forty-seven years to reach its destination. And the denizens8 of this puny9 ball have come to know that Algol possesses an invisible companion, three and a quarter millions of miles away, and that the twain move in their respective orbits at rates of fifty-five and twenty-six miles per second. They also know that beyond it are great chasms10 of space, innumerable worlds, and vast star systems.
While much of the shrinkage to which the planet has been subjected is due to the increased knowledge of mathematics and physics, an equal, if not greater, portion may be ascribed to the perfection of the means of locomotion11 and communication. The enlargement of stellar space, demonstrating with stunning12 force the insignificance13 of the earth, has been negative in its effect; but the quickening of travel and intercourse15, by making the earth’s parts accessible and knitting them together, has been positive.
The advantage of the animal over the vegetable kingdom is obvious. The cabbage, should its environment tend to become worse, must live it out, or die; the rabbit may move on in quest of a better. But, after all, the swift-footed creatures are circumscribed16 in their wanderings. The first large river almost inevitably17 bars their way, and certainly the first salt sea becomes an impassable obstacle. Better locomotion may be classed as one of the prime aims of the old natural selection; for in that primordial18 day the race was to the swift as surely as the battle to the strong. But man, already pre-eminent in the common domain19 because of other faculties20, was not content with the one form of locomotion afforded by his lower limbs. He swam in the sea, and, still better, becoming aware of the buoyant virtues21 of wood, learned to navigate23 its surface. Likewise, from among the land animals he chose the more likely to bear him and his burdens. The next step was the domestication24 of these useful aids. Here, in its organic significance, natural selection ceased to concern itself with locomotion. Man had displayed his impatience25 at her tedious methods and his own superiority in the hastening of affairs. Thenceforth he must depend upon himself, and faster-swimming or faster-running men ceased to be bred. The one, half-amphibian, breasting the water with muscular arms, could not hope to overtake or escape an enemy who propelled a fire-hollowed tree trunk by means of a wooden paddle; nor could the other, trusting to his own nimbleness, compete with a foe26 who careered wildly across the plain on the back of a half-broken stallion.
So, in that dim day, man took upon himself the task of increasing his dominion27 over space and time, and right nobly has he acquitted28 himself. Because of it he became a road builder and a bridge builder; likewise, he wove clumsy sails of rush and matting. At a very remote period he must also have recognized that force moves along the line of least resistance, and in virtue22 thereof, placed upon his craft rude keels which enabled him to beat to windward in a seaway. As he excelled in these humble29 arts, just so did he add to his power over his less progressive fellows and lay the foundations for the first glimmering30 civilizations — crude they were beyond conception, sporadic31 and ephemeral, but each formed a necessary part of the groundwork upon which was to rise the mighty32 civilization of our latter-day world.
Divorced from the general history of man’s upward climb, it would seem incredible that so long a time should elapse between the moment of his first improvements over nature in the matter of locomotion and that of the radical33 changes he was ultimately to compass. The principles which were his before history was, were his, neither more nor less, even to the present century. He utilized34 improved applications, but the principles of themselves were ever the same, whether in the war chariots of Achilles and Pharaoh or the mail-coach and diligence of the European traveller, the cavalry35 of the Huns or of Prince Rupert, the triremes and galleys36 of Greece and Rome or the East India-men and clipper ships of the last century. But when the moment came to alter the methods of travel, the change was so sweeping37 that it may be safely classed as a revolution. Though the discovery of steam attaches to the honour of the last century, the potency38 of the new power was not felt till the beginning of this. By 1800 small steamers were being used for coasting purposes in England; 1830 witnessed the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway; while it was not until 1838 that the Atlantic was first crossed by the steamships39 Great Western and Sirius. In 1869 the East was made next-door neighbour to the West. Over almost the same ground where had toiled41 the caravans43 of a thousand generations, the Suez Canal was dug. Clive, during his first trip, was a year and a half en route from England to India; were he alive to-day he could journey to Calcutta in twenty-two days. After reading De Quincey’s hyperbolical description of the English mail-coach, one cannot down the desire to place that remarkable44 man on the pilot of the White Mail or of the Twentieth Century.
But this tremendous change in the means of locomotion meant far more than the mere45 rapid transit46 of men from place to place. Until then, though its influence and worth cannot be overestimated47, commerce had eked48 out a precarious49 and costly50 existence. The fortuitous played too large a part in the trade of men. The mischances by land and sea, the mistakes and delays, were adverse51 elements of no mean proportions. But improved locomotion meant improved carrying, and commerce received an impetus52 as remarkable as it was unexpected. In his fondest fancies James Watt53 could not have foreseen even the approximate result of his invention, the Hercules which was to spring from the puny child of his brain and hands. An illuminating54 spectacle, were it possible, would be afforded by summoning him from among the Shades to a place in the engine-room of an ocean greyhound. The humblest trimmer would treat him with the indulgence of a child; while an oiler, a greasy55 nimbus about his head and in his hand, as sceptre, a long-snouted can, would indeed appear to him a demigod and ruler of forces beyond his ken14.
It has ever been the world’s dictum that empire and commerce go hand in hand. In the past the one was impossible without the other. Rome gathered to herself the wealth of the Mediterranean nations, and it was only by an unwise distribution of it that she became emasculated and lost both power and trade. With a just system of economics it is highly probable that for centuries she could have held back the welling tide of the Germanic peoples. When upon her ruins rose the institutions of the conquering Teutons, commerce slipped away, and with it empire. In the present, empire and commerce have become interdependent. Such wonders has the industrial revolution wrought56 in a few swift decades, and so great has been the shrinkage of the planet, that the industrial nations have long since felt the imperative57 demand for foreign markets. The favoured portions of the earth are occupied. From their seats in the temperate58 zones the militant59 commercial nations proceed to the exploitation of the tropics, and for the possession of these they rush to war hot-footed. Like wolves at the end of a gorge60, they wrangle61 over the fragments. There are no more planets, no more fragments, and they are yet hungry. There are no longer Cimmerians and Ethiopians, in wide-stretching lands, awaiting them. On either hand they confront the naked poles, and they recoil62 from unnavigable space to an intenser struggle among themselves. And all the while the planet shrinks beneath their grasp.
Of this struggle one thing may be safely predicated; a commercial power must be a sea power. Upon the control of the sea depends the control of trade. Carthage threatened Rome till she lost her navy; and then for thirteen days the smoke of her burning rose to the skies, and the ground was ploughed and sown with salt on the site of her most splendid edifices63. The cities of Italy were the world’s merchants till new trade routes were discovered and the dominion of the sea passed on to the west and fell into other hands. Spain and Portugal, inaugurating an era of maritime64 discovery, divided the new world between them, but gave way before a breed of sea-rovers, who, after many generations of attachment65 to the soil, had returned to their ancient element. With the destruction of her Armada Spain’s colossal66 dream of colonial empire passed away. Against the new power Holland strove in vain, and when France acknowledged the superiority of the Briton upon the sea, she at the same time relinquished67 her designs upon the world. Hampered68 by her feeble navy, her contest for supremacy69 upon the land was her last effort and with the passing of Napoleon she retired70 within herself to struggle with herself as best she might. For fifty years England held undisputed sway upon the sea, controlled markets, and domineered trade, laying, during that period, the foundations of her empire. Since then other naval71 powers have arisen, their attitudes bearing significantly upon the future; for they have learned that the mastery of the world belongs to the masters of the sea.
That many of the phases of this world shrinkage are pathetic, goes without question. There is much to condemn72 in the rise of the economic over the imaginative spirit, much for which the energetic Philistine73 can never atone74. Perhaps the deepest pathos75 of all may be found in the spectacle of John Ruskin weeping at the profanation76 of the world by the vandalism of the age. Steam launches violate the sanctity of the Venetian canals; where Xerxes bridged the Hellespont ply3 the filthy77 funnels78 of our modern shipping79; electric cars run in the shadow of the pyramids; and it was only the other day that Lord Kitchener was in a railroad wreck80 near the site of ancient Luxor. But there is always the other side. If the economic man has defiled81 temples and despoiled82 nature, he has also preserved. He has policed the world and parked it, reduced the dangers of life and limb, made the tenure83 of existence less precarious, and rendered a general relapse of society impossible. There can never again be an intellectual holocaust84, such as the burning of the Alexandrian library. Civilizations may wax and wane85, but the totality of knowledge cannot decrease. With the possible exception of a few trade secrets, arts and sciences may be discarded, but they can never be lost. And these things must remain true until the end of man’s time upon the earth.
Up to yesterday communication for any distance beyond the sound of the human voice or the sight of the human eye was bound up with locomotion. A letter presupposed a carrier. The messenger started with the message, and he could not but avail himself of the prevailing86 modes of travel. If the voyage to Australia required four months, four months were required for communication; by no known means could this time be lessened87. But with the advent88 of the telegraph and telephone, communication and locomotion were divorced. In a few hours, at most, there could be performed what by the old way would have required months. In 1837 the needle telegraph was invented, and nine years later the Electric Telegraph Company was formed for the purpose of bringing it into general use. Government postal89 systems also came into being, later to consolidate90 into an international union and to group the nations of the earth into a local neighbourhood. The effects of all this are obvious, and no fitter illustration may be presented than the fact that to-day, in the matter of communication, the Klondike is virtually nearer to Boston than was Bunker Hill in the time of Warren.
A contemporaneous and remarkable shrinkage of a vast stretch of territory may be instanced in the Northland. From its rise at Lake Linderman the Yukon runs twenty-five hundred miles to Bering Sea, traversing an almost unknown region, the remote recesses91 of which had never felt the moccasined foot of the pathfinder. At occasional intervals92 men wallowed into its dismal93 fastnesses, or emerged gaunt and famine-worn. But in the fall of 1896 a great gold strike was made — greater than any since the days of California and Australia; yet, so rude were the means of communication, nearly a year elapsed before the news of it reached the eager ear of the world. Passionate94 pilgrims disembarked their outfits95 at Dyea. Over the terrible Chilcoot Pass the trail led to the lakes, thirty miles away. Carriage was yet in its most primitive96 stage, the road builder and bridge builder unheard of. With heavy packs upon their backs men plunged97 waist-deep into hideous98 quagmires99, bridged mountain torrents100 by felling trees across them, toiled against the precipitous slopes of the ice-worn mountains, and crossed the dizzy faces of innumerable glaciers101. When, after incalculable toil42 they reached the lakes, they went into the woods, sawed pine trees into lumber102 by hand, and built it into boats. In these, overloaded103, unseaworthy, they battled down the long chain of lakes. Within the memory of the writer there lingers the picture of a sheltered nook on the shores of Lake Le Barge104, in which half a thousand gold seekers lay storm-bound. Day after day they struggled against the seas in the teeth of a northerly gale105, and night after night returned to their camps, repulsed106 but not disheartened. At the rapids they ran their boats through, hit or miss, and after infinite toil and hardship, on the breast of a jarring ice flood, arrived at the Klondike. From the beach at Dyea to the eddy107 below the Barracks at Dawson, they had paid for their temerity108 the tax of human life demanded by the elements. A year later, so greatly had the country shrunk, the tourist, on disembarking from the ocean steamship40, took his seat in a modern railway coach. A few hours later, at Lake Bennet, he stepped aboard a commodious109 river steamer. At the rapids he rode around on a tramway to take passage on another steamer below. And in a few hours more he was in Dawson, without having once soiled the lustre110 of his civilized111 foot-gear. Did he wish to communicate with the outside world, he strolled into the telegraph office. A few short months before he would have written a letter and deemed himself favoured above mortals were it delivered within the year.
From man’s drawing the world closer and closer together, his own affairs and institutions have consolidated112. Concentration may typify the chief movement of the age — concentration, classification, order; the reduction of friction113 between the parts of the social organism. The urban tendency of the rural populations led to terrible congestion114 in the great cities. There was stifling115 and impure116 air, and lo, rapid transit at once attacked the evil. Every great city has become but the nucleus117 of a greater city which surrounds it; the one the seat of business, the other the seat of domestic happiness. Between the two, night and morning, by electric road, steam railway, and bicycle path, ebbs118 and flows the middle-class population. And in the same direction lies the remedy for the tenement119 evil. In the cleansing120 country air the slum cannot exist. Improvement in road-beds and the means of locomotion, a tremor121 of altruism122, a little legislation, and the city by day will sleep in the country by night.
What a play-ball has this planet of ours become! Steam has made its parts accessible and drawn123 them closer together. The telegraph annihilates124 space and time. Each morning every part knows what every other part is thinking, contemplating125, or doing. A discovery in a German laboratory is being demonstrated in San Francisco within twenty-four hours. A book written in South Africa is published by simultaneous copyright in every English-speaking country, and on the following day is in the hands of the translators. The death of an obscure missionary126 in China, or of a whisky smuggler127 in the South Seas, is served up, the world over, with the morning toast. The wheat output of Argentine or the gold of Klondike is known wherever men meet and trade. Shrinkage or centralization has been such that the humblest clerk in any metropolis128 may place his hand on the pulse of the world. And because of all this, everywhere is growing order and organization. The church, the state; men, women, and children; the criminal and the law, the honest man and the thief, industry and commerce, capital and labour, the trades and the professions, the arts and the sciences — all are organizing for pleasure, profit, policy, or intellectual pursuit. They have come to know the strength of numbers, solidly phalanxed and driving onward129 with singleness of purpose. These purposes may be various and many, but one and all, ever discovering new mutual130 interests and objects, obeying a law which is beyond them, these petty aggregations131 draw closer together, forming greater aggregations and congeries of aggregations. And these, in turn, vaguely132 merging133 each into each, present glimmering adumbrations of the coming human solidarity134 which shall be man’s crowning glory.
Oakland, California.
January 1900.
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1
Mediterranean
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| adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的 | |
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boundless
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| adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的 | |
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ply
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| v.(搬运工等)等候顾客，弯曲 | |
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veneer
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| n.(墙上的)饰面，虚饰 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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speck
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| n.微粒，小污点，小斑点 | |
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immutable
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| adj.不可改变的，永恒的 | |
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denizens
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| n.居民，住户( denizen的名词复数 ) | |
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puny
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| adj.微不足道的，弱小的 | |
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chasms
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| 裂缝( chasm的名词复数 )； 裂口； 分歧； 差别 | |
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locomotion
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| n.运动，移动 | |
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stunning
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| adj.极好的；使人晕倒的 | |
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insignificance
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| n.不重要；无价值；无意义 | |
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ken
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| n.视野，知识领域 | |
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intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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circumscribed
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| adj.[医]局限的：受限制或限于有限空间的v.在…周围划线( circumscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；划定…范围；限制；限定 | |
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inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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primordial
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| adj.原始的；最初的 | |
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domain
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| n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围 | |
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faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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navigate
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| v.航行，飞行；导航，领航 | |
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domestication
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| n.驯养，驯化 | |
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impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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dominion
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| n.统治，管辖，支配权；领土，版图 | |
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acquitted
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| 宣判…无罪( acquit的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（自己）作出某种表现 | |
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humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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glimmering
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| n.微光，隐约的一瞥adj.薄弱地发光的v.发闪光，发微光( glimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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sporadic
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| adj.偶尔发生的 [反]regular；分散的 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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radical
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| n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的 | |
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utilized
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| v.利用，使用( utilize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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cavalry
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| n.骑兵；轻装甲部队 | |
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galleys
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| n.平底大船，战舰( galley的名词复数 )；（船上或航空器上的）厨房 | |
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sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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potency
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| n. 效力，潜能 | |
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steamships
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| n.汽船，大轮船( steamship的名词复数 ) | |
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steamship
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| n.汽船，轮船 | |
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toiled
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的过去式和过去分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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caravans
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| （可供居住的）拖车（通常由机动车拖行）( caravan的名词复数 )； 篷车； （穿过沙漠地带的）旅行队（如商队） | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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transit
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| n.经过，运输；vt.穿越，旋转；vi.越过 | |
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overestimated
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| 对（数量）估计过高，对…作过高的评价( overestimate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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eked
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| v.（靠节省用量）使…的供应持久( eke的过去式和过去分词 )；节约使用；竭力维持生计；勉强度日 | |
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precarious
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| adj.不安定的，靠不住的；根据不足的 | |
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costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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adverse
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| adj.不利的；有害的；敌对的，不友好的 | |
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impetus
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| n.推动，促进，刺激；推动力 | |
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53
watt
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| n.瓦，瓦特 | |
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illuminating
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| a.富于启发性的，有助阐明的 | |
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greasy
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| adj. 多脂的，油脂的 | |
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wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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imperative
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| n.命令，需要；规则；祈使语气；adj.强制的；紧急的 | |
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temperate
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| adj.温和的，温带的，自我克制的，不过分的 | |
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militant
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| adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士 | |
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gorge
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| n.咽喉，胃，暴食，山峡；v.塞饱，狼吞虎咽地吃 | |
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wrangle
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| vi.争吵 | |
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recoil
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| vi.退却，退缩，畏缩 | |
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edifices
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| n.大建筑物( edifice的名词复数 ) | |
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maritime
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| adj.海的，海事的，航海的，近海的，沿海的 | |
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attachment
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| n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附 | |
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colossal
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| adj.异常的，庞大的 | |
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relinquished
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| 交出，让给( relinquish的过去式和过去分词 )； 放弃 | |
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hampered
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| 妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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69
supremacy
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| n.至上；至高权力 | |
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70
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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71
naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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72
condemn
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| vt.谴责，指责；宣判(罪犯)，判刑 | |
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73
philistine
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| n.庸俗的人；adj.市侩的，庸俗的 | |
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atone
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| v.赎罪，补偿 | |
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75
pathos
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| n.哀婉，悲怆 | |
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profanation
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| n.亵渎 | |
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77
filthy
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| adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的 | |
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funnels
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| 漏斗( funnel的名词复数 )； （轮船，火车等的）烟囱 | |
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79
shipping
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| n.船运（发货，运输，乘船） | |
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80
wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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defiled
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| v.玷污( defile的过去式和过去分词 )；污染；弄脏；纵列行进 | |
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despoiled
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| v.掠夺，抢劫( despoil的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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83
tenure
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| n.终身职位；任期；(土地)保有权，保有期 | |
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84
holocaust
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| n.大破坏；大屠杀 | |
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85
wane
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| n.衰微，亏缺，变弱；v.变小，亏缺，呈下弦 | |
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86
prevailing
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| adj.盛行的；占优势的；主要的 | |
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87
lessened
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| 减少的，减弱的 | |
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88
advent
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| n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临 | |
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postal
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| adj.邮政的，邮局的 | |
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90
consolidate
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| v.使加固，使加强；(把...)联为一体，合并 | |
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recesses
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| n.壁凹( recess的名词复数 )；（工作或业务活动的）中止或暂停期间；学校的课间休息；某物内部的凹形空间v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的第三人称单数 )；将（墙）做成凹形，在（墙）上做壁龛；休息，休会，休庭 | |
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intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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93
dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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95
outfits
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| n.全套装备( outfit的名词复数 )；一套服装；集体；组织v.装备，配置设备，供给服装( outfit的第三人称单数 ) | |
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96
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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quagmires
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| n.沼泽地，泥潭( quagmire的名词复数 ) | |
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torrents
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| n.倾注；奔流( torrent的名词复数 )；急流；爆发；连续不断 | |
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101
glaciers
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| 冰河，冰川( glacier的名词复数 ) | |
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102
lumber
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| n.木材，木料；v.以破旧东西堆满；伐木；笨重移动 | |
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103
overloaded
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| a.超载的，超负荷的 | |
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104
barge
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| n.平底载货船，驳船 | |
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105
gale
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| n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等） | |
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repulsed
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| v.击退( repulse的过去式和过去分词 )；驳斥；拒绝 | |
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107
eddy
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| n.漩涡，涡流 | |
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108
temerity
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| n.鲁莽，冒失 | |
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109
commodious
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| adj.宽敞的；使用方便的 | |
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110
lustre
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| n.光亮，光泽；荣誉 | |
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111
civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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112
consolidated
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| a.联合的 | |
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113
friction
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| n.摩擦，摩擦力 | |
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114
congestion
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| n.阻塞，消化不良 | |
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115
stifling
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| a.令人窒息的 | |
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116
impure
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| adj.不纯净的，不洁的；不道德的，下流的 | |
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117
nucleus
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| n.核，核心，原子核 | |
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118
ebbs
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| 退潮( ebb的名词复数 )； 落潮； 衰退 | |
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119
tenement
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| n.公寓；房屋 | |
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120
cleansing
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| n. 净化(垃圾) adj. 清洁用的 动词cleanse的现在分词 | |
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121
tremor
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| n.震动，颤动，战栗，兴奋，地震 | |
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122
altruism
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| n.利他主义，不自私 | |
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123
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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124
annihilates
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| n.（彻底）消灭( annihilate的名词复数 )；使无效；废止；彻底击溃v.（彻底）消灭( annihilate的第三人称单数 )；使无效；废止；彻底击溃 | |
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125
contemplating
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| 深思，细想，仔细考虑( contemplate的现在分词 )； 注视，凝视； 考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）； 深思熟虑，沉思，苦思冥想 | |
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126
missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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127
smuggler
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| n.走私者 | |
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128
metropolis
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| n.首府；大城市 | |
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129
onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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130
mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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131
aggregations
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| n.聚集( aggregation的名词复数 )；集成；集结；聚集体 | |
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132
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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133
merging
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| 合并（分类） | |
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134
solidarity
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| n.团结；休戚相关 | |
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