rofessions that the
improvement of ships, engines, and other sea material has gone ahead
faster than all the other engineering arts.

The reason why the engineering arts that are connected with the
sea have gone ahead more rapidly than any other arts is simply
that they are given wider opportunity and a greater scope. It is
inherent in the very nature of things that it is easier to transport
things by water than by land; that water transportation lends itself
in a higher degree to the exercise of engineering skill, to the
attainment of great results.

The underlying reason for this difference seems to be that it is
not possible to make any vehicle to travel on land appreciably
larger than the present automobile, unless it run on rails; whereas
the floating power of water is such that vehicles can be made, and
are made, as large as 65,000 tons. The _Mauretania_, of 45,000
tons displacement, has been running for eight years, larger vessels
are even now running and vessels larger still will undoubtedly
be run; for the larger the ships, the less they cost per ton of
carrying power, the faster they go, and the safer they are.

Sea commerce thus gives to engineers, scientists, and inventors,
as well as to commercial men, that gift of the gods--opportunity.
The number of ships that now traverse the ocean and the larger
bodies of water communicating with it aggregate millions of tons,
and their number and individual tonnage are constantly increasing.
These vessels cruise among all the important seaports of the world,
and form a system of intercommunication almost as complete as the
system of railroads in the United States. They bring distant ports
of the world very close together, and make possible that ready
interchange of material products, and that facility of personal
intercourse which it is one of the aims of civilization to bring
about. From a commercial point of view, London is nearer to New
York than San Francisco, and more intimately allied with her.

The evident result of all this is to make the people of the world
one large community, in which, though many nationalities are numbered,
many tongues are spoken, many degrees of civilization and wealth
are found, yet, of all, the main instincts are the same: the same
passions, the same appetites, the same desire for personal advantage.

Not only does this admirable system of intercommunication bring all
parts of the world very closely together, but it tends to produ