The fires of Hephæstus are fashioning a new world. They are welding humanity into a coherent mass. All the metals, all the ninety chemical elements, are being pressed into service. Whose service? The service of a race whose destiny we can as yet only dimly appreciate. Already we command temperatures varying from a region within a few degrees of the absolute zero to within a few hundred degrees of the heat of the sun. The sight of our eyes has been supplemented to such an extent that we can appreciate and deal with some fifteen octaves of visible and invisible light instead of the single octave “naturally” accessible to our sight. We command pressures of tons per square millimetre and degrees of vacuum down to a hundred-millionth of an atmosphere. We can photograph the track of a single atom tearing its way through moist air. We can print 500,000 copies of a paper of 150,000 words daily and sell it for a penny. We have banished bears and wolves from our home countries and have learnt to wage war against invisible germs of disease. We have acquired the power of bringing beautiful music into the homes of our humblest citizens. The luxuries of our forbears are the common possessions of our own generation. If we are not happier than our ancestors, the fault lies in ourselves, in our ingratitude and lack of imagination. Or must we conclude that happiness is a negligible thing in the great scheme of progress, and that that scheme does not concern itself with our individual feelings? I for one believe that happiness is on the up-grade, too. Hephæstus is not only a strong and a clever god, but a god with a sense of humour and a very lovable character. IV Forerun thy peers, thy time, and let Thy feet, millenniums hence be set In midst of knowledge, dreamt not yet. The empire of Hephæstus is expanding before our eyes. His bellows blow through our blast furnaces. His anvils ring in thousands of factories. His engines career over the land, and his steamers over the sea. His internal-combustion cars are strung out along the roadways, and his avions run their furrows through the clouds. Wherever he goes, he lightens the burdens of humanity and gladdens all hearts with his gifts. He brings warmth and light into dark places. He draws mankind closer and closer together. He draws them together without diminishing the distance between them. He simply makes that distance impotent to hold them apart. He enables the city children to leave their slums and gather fresh health in the open country. He gives the grimed city worker fresh clear air wherein to sleep. His lorries, thundering along the highways, tighten the bonds between the farmer who gathers the fruit and the town dweller who consumes it. Nor is Hephæstus satisfied yet. His task is but half finished. The whole earth must be Vulcanized.