the very success of physical research makes this inevitable.

When in 1783 the brothers Montgolfier ascended a mile above the earth in
a balloon there was a thrill of excitement, as the spectators felt that
the story of Daedalus had been taken from the world of romance into the
world of fact. But, after all, the invention went only a little way in
the direction of the navigation of the air. It is one thing to float,
and another thing to steer a craft toward a desired haven. The balloon
having been invented, the next and more difficult task was to make it
dirigible. It was the same problem that had puzzled the inventors of
primitive times who had discovered that, by making use of a proper log,
they could be carried from place to place on the water. What the landing
place should be was, however, a matter beyond their control. They had to
trust to the current, which was occasionally favorable to them. In the
first exhilaration over their discovery they were doubtless thankful
enough to go down stream, even when their business called them up
stream. At least they had the pleasant sensation of getting on. They
were obeying the law of progress. The uneasy radical who wanted to
progress in a predetermined direction must have seemed like a
visionary. But the desire to go up stream and across stream and beyond
sea persisted, and the log became a boat, and paddles and oars and
rudder and sail and screw propeller were invented in answer to the ever
increasing demand.

But the problem of the dirigibility of a boat, or of a balloon, is
simplicity itself compared with the amazing complexity of the problems
involved in producing a dirigible civilization. It falls under Bacon's
category of "things which never yet have been performed." Heretofore
civilizations have floated on the cosmic atmosphere. They have been
carried about by mysterious currents till they could float no longer.
Then their wreckage has furnished materials for history.

But all the time human ingenuity has been at work attacking the great
problem. Thousands of little inventions have been made, by which we gain
temporary control of some of the processes. We are coming to have a
consciousness of human society as a whole, and of the possibility of
directing its progress. It is not enough to satisfy the modern intellect
to devise plans by which we may become more rich or more powerful. We
must also tax our ingenuity to find ways for the equitable division of
the wealth