BEGINNING OF KNOWLEDGE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 956, 18 February 1911, Page 4

BEGINNING OF KNOWLEDGE.

“Already, as Edison tells us, we can read a word through 36 inches of solid wood,” says Collier’s Weekly. “Of the uuguessed currents and forces which play through a little room we are only at the beginning of knowledge. Within the present generation medicine suddenly leaps into a uew realm, annexes the kingdom of mind, and assaults disease from a fresh vantage ground. Religion adds to her old-time emphasis of individual righteousness a new vision of social justice, calling on the fresh springs of science, without forgetting the old wells of sympathy, to irrigate aud fertilise poverty aud ignorance. The law itself, too often felt to be the enemy of the downtrodden and the tool of the astute, is turning its ability towards shackling hostile manifestations of massed wealth. Increasingly, industry seeks the efficiency, health, aud goodwill of lots of workers. Quietly, iu a million ot homes, life is well lived, honourably ended. Educatiou both widens its own domain and spreads itself among the unlearned. The desire for peace at home aud abroad gains on men’s unruly impulses. Sectionalism and factious die out. Civil wars are forgotten. The goal of the ages is nearer than it was a thousand years ago ; nearer than a hundred years ago.”