Nor  is  there  little  in  the  spirit  of  the  age  to  encourage  our  hope
of  such  a  co-operation. Never  before  were  the  agencies  for  good
so  numerous  in  the  world  as  now;  never  before  were  these  agencies
so  active  in  their  several  spheres  as  now ;  never  before  did  they
ensphere  themselves  in  combinations  of  such  a  compass  and  of  such
a  unity  as  now;  never  before,  as  now,  did  the  spirit  of  union  flow
through  them  all  and  overflow  them,  like  a  baptism,  to  consecrate
them  all — to  initiate  and  enchurch  them,  if  I  may  so  say,  in  one
communion. What  was  once  attempted  occasionally  and  by  here
and  there  an  individual,  in  the  way  of  doing  good,  is  now  pursued
as  a  business  by  large  associations. The  spirit  of  philanthropy  that
embodied  itself  in  the  person  of  a  single  Howard,  nay,  rather  in  that
diviner  form  wliich  stood  so  conspicuously  alone  before  the  world
in  the  person  of  Christ,  is  now  represented  by  multitudes,  not  of
individuals  only,  but  of  organized  committees,  of  churches,  national
and  international  societies,  and  world-wide  missions,  that  no  human
woe  or  want  may  escape  its  notice  or  fail  of  its  relief. What,  a  gen-
eration ago,  afforded  only  a  playful  experiment  to  a  Franklin  flying
his  kite,  is  putting  minds  and  hearts,  the  world  over,  into  commu-
nication with  one  another,  and  into  each  other's  moods,  and  this  by
millions,  at  the  same  moment. Commerce,  which  began  in  piracy
between  near  neighbors  who  had  hated  each  other,  has  become,  like
the  ocean  itself  which  once  separated  nations,  one  of  the  great
pacificators  of  the    world. Steam- power,   whose   first    historic  ob-


^


APPENDIX. 331

server,  a  century  since,  was  the  youthful  Walt,  watching  its  play  on
the  lid  of  his  aunt's  tea-kettle,  and  thought  to  be  an  idler  at  that,
is  known  and  read  of  all  men  now  as  the  grand  motor  of  commerce,
travel,  and  the  industrial  arts;  and  as  a  socializer,  though  less  ob-
served, is  not  less  efficient  or  less  extensive  in  its  influence. If  it
has  increased  mechanical  production  a  million-fold,  and  distribution
in  the  same  ratio,  it  has  done  much  to  retire  servile  toil  from  the
field  of  competition,  and  to  lift  the  menial  classes  into  something
like  society. 