The history of the world, it has been justly observed, is the history of the progress of humanity ; each epoch is characterized by some peculiar development ; some element or principle is continually being evolved by the simultaneous, though unconscious and involuntary, workings and struggles of the human mind. Profound study and observation have discovered, that the characteristic of our epoch is perfect freedom — freedom of thought and action.
The indignant Greek, the oppressed Pole, the zealous American, assert it. The skeptic no less than the believer, the heretic no less than the faithful child of the church, have begun to enjoy it. It has generated an unusual degree of energy and activity — it has generated the commercial spirit. Man thinks faster and freer than ever before. He moreover moves faster and freer. He is more restless, for the reason that he is more independent, than ever. The winds and the waves are not enough for him ; he must needs ransack the bowels of the earth that he may make for himself a highway of iron over its surface.
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