It is laughable to read of those days when men were drugged with pills, boluses and powders.  Now our physic is in our food; and the doctor prescribes a series of articles to be eaten or avoided, as the case may be.  One can see at once by consulting his “vital-watch,” which shows every change in the magnetic and electric forces of the body, just how his physical strength wanes or increases; and he can modify his diet accordingly; he can select, for instance, a dish highly charged with quinine or iron, and yet perfectly palatable; hence, among the wealthier classes, a man of one hundred is as common now-a-days as a man of seventy was a century ago; and many go far beyond that point, in full possession of all their faculties.

I glanced around the great dining-room and inspected my neighbors.  They all carried the appearance of wealth; they were quiet, decorous and courteous.  But I could not help noticing that the women, young and old, were much alike in some particulars, as if some general causes had molded them into the same form.  Their brows were all fine—­broad, square, and deep from the ear forward; and their jaws also were firmly developed, square like a soldier’s; while the profiles were classic in their regularity, and marked by great firmness.  The most peculiar feature was their eyes.  They had none of that soft, gentle, benevolent look which so adorns the expression of my dear mother and other good women whom we know.  On the contrary, their looks were bold, penetrating, immodest, if I may so express it, almost to fierceness:  they challenged you; they invited you; they held intercourse with your soul.

The chief features in the expression of the men were incredulity, unbelief, cunning, observation, heartlessness.  I did not see a good face in the whole room:  powerful faces there were, I grant you; high noses, resolute mouths, fine brows; all the marks of shrewdness and energy; a forcible and capable race; but that was all.  I did not see one, my dear brother of whom I could say, “That man would sacrifice himself for another; that man loves his fellow man.”

I could not but think how universal and irresistible must have been the influences of the age that could mold all these Men and women into the same soulless likeness.  I pitied them.  I pitied mankind, caught in the grip of such wide-spreading tendencies.  I said to myself:  “Where is it all to end?  What are we to expect of a race without heart or honor?  What may we look for when the powers of the highest civilization supplement the instincts of tigers and wolves?  Can the brain of man flourish when the heart is dead?”

I rose and left the room.