Think for a moment of this significant situation.  For thousands of years, empires, systems of society, systems of civilization—­Egyptian, Jewish, Greek, Roman, Moslem, Feudal—­have flourished and fallen, grown to a certain height and passed away; great organized fabrics have gone down, and, if there has been any progress, it has been as often defeated as renewed.  And here is an empire, apart from this scene of alternate success and disaster, which has existed in a certain continuity and stability, and yet, now that it is uncovered and stands face to face with the rest of the world, it finds that it has little to teach us, and almost everything to learn from us.  The old empire sends its students to learn of us, the newest child of civilization; and through us they learn all the great past, its literature, law, science, out of which we sprang.  It appears, then, that progress has, after all, been with the shifting world, that has been all this time going to pieces, rather than with the world that has been permanent and unshaken.

When we speak of progress we may mean two things.  We may mean a lifting of the races as a whole by reason of more power over the material world, by reason of what we call the conquest of nature and a practical use of its forces; or we may mean a higher development of the individual man, so that he shall be better and happier.  If from age to age it is discoverable that the earth is better adapted to man as a dwelling-place, and he is on the whole fitted to get more out of it for his own growth, is not that progress, and is it not evidence of an intention of progress?

Now, it is sometimes said that Providence, in the economy of this world, cares nothing for the individual, but works out its ideas and purposes through the races, and in certain periods, slowly bringing in, by great agencies and by processes destructive to individuals and to millions of helpless human beings, truths and principles; so laying stepping-stones onward to a great consummation.  I do not care to dwell upon this thought, but let us see if we can find any evidence in history of the presence in this world of an intention of progress.

It is common to say that, if the world makes progress at all, it is by its great men, and when anything important for the race is to be done, a great man is raised up to do it.  Yet another way to look at it is, that the doing of something at the appointed time makes the man who does it great, or at least celebrated.  The man often appears to be only a favored instrument of communication.  As we glance back we recognize the truth that, at this and that period, the time had come for certain discoveries.  Intelligence seemed pressing in from the invisible.  Many minds were on the alert to apprehend it.  We believe, for instance, that if Gutenberg had not invented movable types, somebody else would have given them to the world about that time.  Ideas, at certain times, throng for admission into the world;