end towards which the hopes of the
world have always moved is farther
off than it seemed to the earlier gen-
erations; that the process of spiritual
and social evolution is longer and
more painful; that the universe is
vaster and more wonderful than the
vision of it which formed in the im-
agination of thinkers and poets; in a
word, that the education which is
being imparted to humanity by the
very structure of the conditions under
which it lives grows more severe,
prolonged, and exacting as its methods
and processes become more clear.
The broadening of the field of obser-
vation has steadily deepened the im-
pression of the magnitude and majesty
of the physical order by which men
are surrounded; and the fuller knowl-
edge of what is in human experience
has steadily deepened the impression

[[262]]

p261 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p262w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p263

v?