sown the seed, and now the world was ready to reap
an abundant harvest.

The great political events of this period may be briefly summarized as
follows:--

1. _The abolition of human slavery._--Great Britain, Spain, France,
Russia, and finally our own country have forever removed the shackles of
the slave within their borders. Perhaps the greatest of all emancipation
acts was that of Russia, which, in 1861, without bloodshed and without
serious disturbance, by royal decree, set free forty million serfs. The
abolition of slavery in nearly all civilized countries is the greatest
political triumph of Christian civilization. Without this there could
never have come that higher intellectual emancipation which is the aim
sought in all education.

2. _The extension of political rights._--This is another victory that
must be credited to the period under discussion. At the beginning of the
eighteenth century there was scarcely a nation that acknowledged the
right of the individual to a part in government, or to personal
freedom. Men were in vassalage to their immediate lord, who, in turn,
was obliged to acknowledge the "divine right" of the king over him. With
the exception of Switzerland, who for centuries had maintained her
freedom, and of England, who had secured the rights of man only by much
bloodshed, there was scarcely a people in the world that possessed the
right of self-government. Even England had secured that right only in
the latter half of the seventeenth century under the leadership of
Cromwell. This right she did not concede to her colonies, however, until
the American Revolution wrested her richest dependency from her, and
forever established the principle of self-government for a sovereign
people.

Immediately following the American Revolution came the French
Revolution, which taught the Old World the ideas so heroically
conceived, so bravely supported, and so successfully realized in the New
World. Nor is this all. The same principle has compelled the rulers of
most of the European nations to divide the responsibility of government
with their subjects, and to grant their people enlarged powers but
little short of absolute sovereignty.

3. _Science has been recognized as a powerful instrument of
civilization._--Through scientific discoveries there has been a
wonderful accession to material wealth, invention has been stimulated,
and progress has been made in all directions. The spirit of
investigation has