These, these are the eternal things--that persist in every age, in every
environment, in old Etruscan villages as in the Paris of to-day: these
are the realities to which "the latest scientific conveniences" are but
padding, and in which we have had no superiority over our ancestors, even
as we shall have no inferiority to our successors, though they riot in
"Vril" and balloons, and go on Cooks' Tours to the constellations. The
network of nerves in which we live and move and have our being is only
capable of a certain quota of sensations, and no invention will really
enlarge our enjoyments except it be of a new set of nerves. Persons whose
lives have known strange vicissitudes have been astonished to find
pleasure and pain about equally distributed in all; and I am optimist
enough to think that no age will be really less unhappy than the present.
Reformers who imagine they improve on the past age do but alter old
institutions to fit new feelings. Reformers are necessary because
otherwise the new feelings would be cramped by the old institutions. But
there is no addition to the sum of pleasure. Progress really means not
lagging behind; and however far we march, the same sunshine will throw
the same shadow of pain across our path.
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