Thus inventions, while originating (or seeming to originate) in the minds of men, change the environment of men, and this changes the men. Of the two changes, it would be easy to say that the change made in the men is the more important; but would it be truthful to say so? We have already noted the curious fact that inventions have the faculty of self-improvement to a degree far greater than men have it; for the reason that each new man must begin where his last ancestor began, whereas each new invention begins where his last ancestor finished. This suggests that the changes produced in environment are more profound than the changes produced in men; that in fact the changes in environment are very profound, and the changes in men quite superficial. That this is really the case is indicated by the very long time needed to build up the environments of civilization, and the very short time needed for men to adapt themselves to those environments, or to any changed conditions. The fact has often been noted (sometimes with chagrin) that highly refined gentlemen adapt themselves with extreme facility to the often primitive environments of hunting or campaigning, and history shows in many instances how quickly barbarians have adapted themselves to civilization. This leads us to suspect that the Machine which inventions have built up may not be of so much permanence as we are prone to think, and makes us realize that it is not a natural production but one wholly artificial. Now nothing that is wholly artificial can reasonably be expected to be permanent, unless adequate and timely measures are taken to insure it. CHAPTER XI INVENTION AND GROWTH OF LIBERAL GOVERNMENT, AMERICAN CIVIL WAR While the period from 1800 to 1850 was alive with inventions of many sorts, it was alive also with the economic changes which the inventions caused and with political changes also. It was in the United States of America that the greatest changes of all kinds came. This was to be expected from the fact that before 1800 the United States were considerably behind the countries of Europe from which their own civilization had been derived; whereas in 1850, they had been able to get abreast of them, by reason of the quickness of transportation and communication that ocean steamers gave, and the energy and enterprise of the new American nation. During the period from 1800 till 1850, the United States went through three successful wars; one with Great Britain, one with Algiers and one with Mexico. They expanded also over a considerably greater territory, acquired a much greater population, added new states, and showed such aptitude in scientific discovery and invention as to achieve a place in the first rank of nations in this particular.