e in America are no
longer coerced into the acknowledgement of an assumed superior class,
only renders our obligation of voluntary deference more binding. The
selfishness and recklessness which the principle of individuality has
developed in its course; the disregard of moral duties which it has
engendered, promise only disaster and defeat to our national career,
unless speedily counteracted by a development of the opposite tendency.

Finally, it is in the sphere of intellectual growth, with its resulting
scientific achievement and material prosperity, that we must look for
the greatest results of the period in which the principle of
individuality has preponderated. It is needless to undertake to detail
these here. Every department of human concern has felt their influence,
and advanced under it. Through science, the world in which we live has
been unfolded to our vision; the organism we inhabit made known; the
history of the past revealed; and the destiny of our future forecast. To
science, the offspring of intellectual activity, we owe our increased
facilities for travel; the gradually accumulating comforts of life;
extended commercial advantages; national growth; social amelioration;
increased power over the elements; and rapidly accumulating wealth. To
mental development we owe civil freedom, social culture, and religious
liberty; commerce, invention, arts, education, enterprise. The principle
of individuality still guides the development of our day; science is
discovering new resources; and practical applications are introducing
new elements of prosperity. The stage of unity has done its work; it
gave us great elements of civilization, but not enough. The stage of
individuality, now swiftly advancing to its close, has furnished
magnificent contributions to progress, but could not achieve the highest
point. We are passing into a third era, which shall combine the good
results of each, and ultimate a nobler form of individual and social
life.

Here, then, we may pause in our investigation and ask the conclusion.
Have intellectual truths been more important in the past progress of the
world than moral ones? Let us sum up. We have seen that the early ages
of the world were dominated by the principle of unity; that during its
career the moral agencies preponderated, while the intellectual were
subordinated; that society, under the influence of these agencies,
developed to a higher degree than subsequently certain eleme