Conclusion.
In setting forth at length the glorious achievements of the twentieth
century, the Author has no desire to rob our now closing nineteenth
century of one iota of its brilliantly earned laurels. The achievements
of the nineteenth century will grow to the last syllable of recorded
time. Their imprint upon the history of man is indelible and shall
be linked in the chains of eternity.
In the field of scientific discovery the nineteenth century has no peer
in all the preceding ages. It stands forth a giant whose achievements
in the cause of science, liberty, education and humanity outweigh
the combined products of all eras from the birth of Christ.
Newton's discovery of gravitation must ever memorize the seventeenth
century in the annals of men, but the genius of the nineteenth century
has produced its equal in the correlation and conservation of forces,
the widest generalization that the human mind has yet attained.
The telescope of the eighteenth century is overbalanced by the
spectroscope of the nineteenth, telling us of the composition, rate
of speed of myriads of suns. The electric telegraph, the telephone,
the phonograph, wireless telegraphy, and the Röentgen rays are all
children of the nineteenth century.
The vast doctrine of organic evolution, the periodic law of chemistry,
the molecular theory of gases, Kelvin's vortex theory of matter, are
all priceless jewels in the crown of the nineteenth century. To these
we must add in the nineteenth century phalanx the magnificent discovery
of anæsthetics and antiseptic surgery, the wonderful mobilization of
man through the medium of steam and electricity by land and sea.
Let us give to the nineteenth century the full measure of its
magnificent conquests in the arts and sciences. But, to-day, we
stand at the threshold of the twentieth century, in which, with its
legacy of nineteenth century genius, still greater and more sweeping
results will be attained. Vast fields of scientific research remain
unexplored. Proud science must to-day bend her knee and confess
ignorance in many problems of the most simple character. The absolute
command of Mind over Matter calls for herculean strides of progress
before its sway be undisputed.
The twentieth century, however, will pre-eminently outrank all
preceding eras in the measure of liberty accorded to the peoples of
the universe, and, in the foremost rank, as a pillar of fire by night
and a cloud by day, the leadership of great, broad America will be
followed by the nations of the world.
The Supreme Ruler of the universe, who holds this globe in the hollow
of His Hand, has marked out the line this nation must follow and our
duty must be done.
America is destined to become the Light of the World.
With her grand Constitution for guide and compass, her boundaries will
extend until her banner of true freedom and liberty shall spread its
folds and protect every nation in the Western Hemisphere, gathering
them into one flock and one mighty Republic.
In the year of grace, 1999, the light of God's sun will reveal to the
admiring gaze of the World, the noblest creation of Man,--a United
America, the law giver unto the nations of the earth, a mighty power
that shall dictate peace and banish war and make True Freedom ring
throughout the world.