In the year 1844 electricity, last and mightiest of the servants of man,
was seized and harnessed and made to do practical work. A telegraph line
was erected between Washington and Baltimore. [Footnote: See _Invention
of the Telegraph_.] In 1846 mathematics achieved perhaps the greatest
triumph of abstract science. It pointed out where in the heavens there
should be a planet, never before known by man. Strong telescopes were
directed to the spot and the planet was discovered. [Footnote: See _The
Discovery of Neptune_.] Man had found guides more subtle and more
accurate than his own five ancient senses. The age of figures, the age
of electricity, began.
The changes were symbolic, perhaps, of the more rapid rate at which the
forces of society were soon to move. Over all Europe and America great
events were shaping themselves with lightning speed. Tremendous changes
political and economic, social and scientific, were hurrying to an
issue.