The most surprising and extraordinary quality of mind manifested by man
is his ready power of adaptation to whatever may become a part of his
earthly experiences. It, alone, assures his continual progress upon
all lines of growth connected not only with his earthly but also his
immortal career. Great inventions, unexpected discoveries, and
astounding revelations may stagger him for a moment; but the facility
with which he finally absorbs all the hitherto unknown outworkings of
science and natural law, and assimilates them to his inner sense of the
fitness of things, changing all his relationship to his material life,
and forcing himself to a readjustment not only of his mental
perceptions, but also of his external existence gives proof sufficient
of his being not only favored of the gods, but also of his near kinship
with them. The marvels of mechanics, the divinely beautiful
representations of art, and the exalted inspirations of literature were
never so sought after, or so appreciated by large portions of the race
as at the present time. The peasant's cot today is made comfortable
and beautified by accessories which within our historical knowledge
could not be commanded by kings and princes possessed of great riches.
The spiritual origin of the splendid architecture of the great "white
city" and later of the southern expositions is perfectly apparent to
the eye of the mystic and the seer, and these vast, concentrated
exhibits of the world's work are object lessons of which the influence
can never be outlived even by the careless and unobserving. Today the
great leaders of men, led by inspiring thoughts which would have
appalled their forefathers, perfect schemes for overcoming the
obstacles inhering in the vast forces of nature, and harness them into
subservience to the growing needs of the race.
What devil-worshippers those old chaps were! To him they ascribed all
power over things animate and inanimate, and the effrontery of the man
who should have even mentioned the possibility of talking over a wire,
thousands of miles, or of utilizing the forces of Niagara, or of
hundreds of inventions now in use in the most commonplace surroundings
would have been met with condign punishment. Our inventors would be in
dungeons instead of their comfortable laboratories, and our great
engineers would long ago have lost their heads. What a time we have
had getting the devil out of our mechanical life! Now he can only rule
in the immaterial world, in the crude imaginations of the ignorant and
superstitious.