[Gutenberg 48674] • A Hundred Years Hence: The Expectations of an Optimist

The following was at first intended to be no more than an at-tempt to foresee the probable trend of mechanical invention and scientific discovery during the present century. But as the work took shape it was seen to involve a certain amount of what may be called moral conjecture, since the material pro-gress of the new age could not very well be imagined without taking into account its mental characteristics. In these expecta-tions of an optimist, a great ethical improvement of the civil-ised human race has been anticipated, and a rate of progress foreseen which perhaps no previous writers have looked for. Both in regard to moral development and material progress, it has been the aim of the author to predict nothing that the tendencies of existing movement do not justify us in expecting.