t gave full scope to these propensities could stand, there
would be little chance for one based on the idea of cooperation for
the benefit of all. It seems absurd to expect any one to believe that
convictions like these were ever seriously entertained by men; but
that they were not only entertained by our great-grandfathers, but
were responsible for the long delay in doing away with the ancient
order, after a conviction of its intolerable abuses had become
general, is as well established as any fact in history can be. Just
here you will find the explanation of the profound pessimism of the
literature of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the note of
melancholy in its poetry, and the cynicism of its humor.

"Feeling that the condition of the race was unendurable, they had no
clear hope of anything better. They believed that the evolution of
humanity had resulted in leading it into a _cul de sac_, and that
there was no way of getting forward. The frame of men's minds at this
time is strikingly illustrated by treatises which have come down to
us, and may even now be consulted in our libraries by the curious, in
which laborious arguments are pursued to prove that despite the evil
plight of men, life was still, by some slight preponderance of
considerations, probably better worth living than leaving. Despising
themselves, they despised their Creator. There was a general decay of
religious belief. Pale and watery gleams, from skies thickly veiled by
doubt and dread, alone lighted up the chaos of earth. That men should
doubt Him whose breath is in their nostrils, or dread the hands that
moulded them, seems to us indeed a pitiable insanity; but we must
remember that children who are brave by day have sometimes foolish
fears at night. The dawn has come since then. It is very easy to
believe in the fatherhood of God in the twentieth century.

"Briefly, as must needs be in a discourse of this character, I have
adverted to some of the causes which had prepared men's minds for the
change from the old to the new order, as well as some causes of the
conservatism of despair which for a while held it back after the time
was ripe. To wonder at the rapidity with which the change was
completed after its possibility was first entertained is to forget the
intoxicating effect of hope upon minds long accustomed to despair. The
sunburst, after so long and dark a night, must needs have had a
dazzling effect. From the moment men allowed