Most surprising of his recent steps in this exploration of his surroundings was the attainment of the South Pole in 1911.[1] This came so swiftly upon the conquest of the North Pole, that it caught the world unprepared; it was an unexpected triumph.  Yet it marks the closing of an era.  Earth’s surface has no more secrets concealed from man.  For half a century past, the only remaining spaces of complete mystery, of utter blankness on our maps, were the two Poles.  And now both have been attained.  The gaze of man’s insatiable wonderment must hereafter be turned upon the distant stars.

[Footnote 1:  See Discovery of the South Pole, page 218.]

But man does not merely explore his environment; he alters it.  Most widespread and important of our recent remodelings of our surroundings has been the universal adoption of the automobile.  This machine has so increased in popularity and in practical utility that we may well call ours the “Automobile Age.”  The change is not merely that one form of vehicle is superseding another on our roads and in our streets.  We face an impressive theme for meditation in the fact that up to the present generation man was still, as regarded his individual personal transit, in the same position as the Romans of two thousand years ago, dependent upon the horse as his swiftest mode of progress.  With the automobile we have suddenly doubled, quadrupled the size of our “neighborhood,” the space which a man may cover alone at will for a ramble or a call.  As for speed, we seem to have succumbed to an actual mania for ever-increasing motion.  The automobile is at present the champion speed-maker, the fastest means of propelling himself man has yet invented.  But the aeroplane and the hydroplane are not far behind, and even the electric locomotive has a thrill of promise for the speed maniac.[2]

[Footnote 2:  See Man’s Fastest Mile, page 73.]

In thus developing his mastery over Nature man sometimes forgets his danger, oversteps the narrow margin of safety he has left between himself and the baffled forces of his ancient tyrants, Fire and Water, Earth and Air.  Then indeed, in his moments of weakness, the primordial forces turn upon him and he becomes subject to tragic and terrific punishment.  Of such character was the most prominent disaster of these years, the sinking of the ocean steamer Titanic.  The best talent of England and America had united to produce this monster ship, which was hailed as the last, the biggest, the most perfect thing man could do in shipbuilding.  It was pronounced “unsinkable.”  Its captain was reckless in his confidence; and Nature reached down in menace from the regions of northern ice; and the ship perished.[1] Since then another great ship has sunk, under almost similar conditions, and with almost equal loss of life.

[Footnote 1:  See Tragedy of the Titanic, page 265.]