166 The Plan of the Ages.
Age," are really very modern nearly all having eome with- in the past century, and among the most important are those of the last threescore years \ for instance, the applica- tion of steam and electricity in telegraphy, railroading and steamboating, and to the machinery of the various me- chanical industries. If, then, these be evidences of in- creased brain power, the "Brain Age" must be only be- ginning, and the logical deduction is that another century will witness every form of miracle as an every-day occur- rence; and at the same ratio of increase, where would it eventuate ?
But let us look again : Are all men inventors ? How very few there are whose inventions are really useful and prac- tical, compared with the number who appreciate and use an invention when put into their hand ! Nor do we speak disparagingly of that very useful and highly-esteemed class of public servants when we say that the smaller number of them are men of great brain-power. Some of the most brainy men in the world, and the deepest rcasoners, are not me- chanical inventors. And some inventors are intellectually so sluggish that all wonder how they ever stumbled into the discoveries they made. The great principles (eleclric- ity, steam power, ^tc.), which many men in many years work out, apply and improve upon, time and again, were generally discovered apparently by the merest accident, with- out the exercise of great brain power, and comparatively unsought.
From a human standpoint we can account for modern inventions thus: The invention of printing, in A. D. 1440, may be considered the starting point. With the printing of books came records of the thoughts and discoveries of thinkers and observers, which, without this invention, would never have been known to their successors. With books came a more general eduction and, finally, common
�� �
