and again I ask, of what import is an individual?"
Edward Lorraine.—"Of none, if this living multitude were as the sands on the shore, where none is greater or less than the other; but when we see that one makes the destinies of many, and the tremendous influence a single mind often exercises, it behoves every man to try what his powers are for the general good. It is the effort of a single mind that has worked greatest changes. What are the events that, during the last five hundred years, have altered the whole face of things—changed the most our moral position? Let me enumerate some of the most striking. The discovery of America, of gunpowder, of printing,—the Reformation, the magnet,—all these were severally the work of an individual, and in each case a lonely, humble, unaided individual. Algernon[1], all these are stimulating examples. Instead of asking of what import is an individual, let us rather ask, what is there an individual may not do?"
Lord Etheringhame.—"And to what have all these discoveries tended? I see you glance round the room and smile. We have luxuries, I grant, of which our forefathers never dreamed;
- ↑ See opening Note
