Think, indeed, what might be.
"Ah! when shall all men's good
Be each man's rule, and universal Peace
Lie like a shaft of light across the land,
And like a lane of beams athwart the sea,
Thro' all the circle of the golden year." [6]
Our life is surrounded with mystery, our very world is a speck in boundless space; and not only the period of our own individual life, but that of the whole human race is, as it were, but a moment in the eternity of time. We cannot imagine any origin, nor foresee the conclusion.
But though we may not as yet perceive any line of research which can give us a clue to the solution, in another sense we may hold that every addition to our knowledge is one small step toward the great revelation.
Progress may be more slow, or more rapid. It may come to others and not to us. It will not come to us if we do not strive to deserve it. But come it surely will.
"Yet one thing is there that ye shall not slay,
Even thought, that fire nor iron can affright." [7]
The future of man is full of hope, and who can foresee the limits of his destiny?
[1] Lubbock. Fifty Years of Science.
[2] The Senses of Animals.
[3] Lubbock. Fifty Years of Science.