early everything man has made
for his use--nearly everything. I saw models of all the watercraft;
from the rude dug-out, in which paddled the naked savage, with his
forehead about half as high as his teeth were long--all the water craft
from that dug-out up to a man of war that carries a hundred guns and
miles of canvas; from that rude dug-out to a steamship that turns its
brave prow from the port of New York, with three thousand miles of
foaming billows before it, not missing a throb or beat of its mighty
iron heart from one shore to the other. I saw their ideas of weapons,
from the rude club, such as was seized by that same barbarian as he
emerged from his den in the morning, hunting a snake for his dinner;
from that club to the boomerang, to the dagger, to the sword, to the
blunderbuss, to the old flintlock, to the cap-lock, to the needle-gun,
to the cannon invented by Krupp, capable of hurling a ball weighing two
thousand pounds through eighteen inches of solid steel.

I saw their ideas of defensive armor, from the turtle shell which one
of these gentlemen lashed upon his breast preparatory to going to war,
or the skin of a porcupine, dried with the quills on, that he pulled on
his orthodox head before he sallied forth. By "orthodox" I mean man who
has quit growing; not simply in religion, but it everything; whenever a
man is done, he is orthodox whenever he thinks he has found out all, he
is orthodox whenever he becomes a drag on the swift car of progress, he
is orthodox. I saw their defensive armor, from the turtle-shell and
the porcupine skin to the shirts of mail of the middle ages, that
defied the edge of the sword and the point of the spear. I saw their
ideas of agricultural implements, from the crooked stick that was
attached to the horn of an ox by some twisted straw, to the
agricultural implements of today, that make it possible for a man to
cultivate the soil without being an ignoramus. When they had none of
these agricultural implements--when they depended upon one crop--they
were superstitious, for if the frosts struck one crop they thought the
gods were angry with them.

Now, with the implements, machinery and knowledge of mechanics of
today, people have found out that no man can be good enough nor bad
enough to cause a frost. After having found out these things are
contrary to the laws of nature, they began to raise more than one kind
of crop. If the frost strikes one they have the other; if it