THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. EDITED BY ALLEN THORNDIKE RICE. VOL. CXXXVII. Tros Tyriusque mihi nullo discrimine agetur. NEW YORK: No. 30 LAFAYETTE PLACE. NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. No. CCCXX. JULY, 1883. DYNAMITE AS A FACTOR IN CIVILIZATION. ATTEMPTS to subvert existing institutions by violence have been sufficiently frequent in the past to afford some basis for judging as to their course and issue; and the use in our time of the new and mighty enginery of destruction which modern science has furnished is not new in its spirit, or aim, or probable results. The sources of the danger which now threatens are not new, and are not in the dynamite itself. It is not in the weapon, but in the hands which use it; and not in these, but in the hearts which direct them that the real peril is to be found. The choices of men are the root of the whole trouble; and its future bearings will only be seen in the motives hereafter most likely to prevail in human purposes. It is quite clear at the outset-human nature remaining as it is-that political problems are not likely to be solved by force and fear alone. This can be said without any loss of the potency which these agencies undoubtedly exercise. There is a sphere of human life in which force reigns as manifestly as in any department of nature. A man feels pain and fears itand a fear not lessened, but rather increased, by increasing intelligence. The superior intelligence which gives a man more skill to shun danger makes him also more keenly sensitive to VOL. CXXXVII.-NO. 320. 333379 1 a feeling |