Try to imagine what would happen if the invented art of--say writing--for instance were suddenly lost. Would not the whole civilized world be thrown into chaos as soon as the fact were realized? A like disorder would be occasioned, though possibly not so quickly, if men should suddenly forget how to print, or even how to use the telegraph, telephone or the comparatively unimportant typewriter. Try to imagine what would happen in even one city,--say New York--if the typewriter were suddenly to be withdrawn! Would not all the business of New York be paralyzed in a single day? Or fancy that all the machines for making and utilizing electricity for supplying light and power should suddenly become inoperative. Would there not be a panic within twenty-four hours or less? Fancy that all the elevators should have to stop. Imagine what would happen if the steam engine should suddenly cease to operate, and all the steamships and railroad trains should stop, and the countless wheels of industry that are turned directly or indirectly by steam should cease to turn. Imagine that gunpowder should cease to function, and that savages could meet modern armies on equal terms. Some one may declare that this line of argument does not prove as much as it seems to prove regarding the influence of invention, for the reason that it includes a sudden change, and that every sudden change produces results which are caused merely by the suddenness of the change. So let us grant this, and then imagine that the changes suggested would not take place suddenly, but very slowly. Imagine, for instance, that we should discover that the various inventions noted in this book were gradually to cease to operate, but that they would not cease altogether for twenty years, or even forty. _Is it not certain that the human race would revert to savagery, after those inventions had ceased to operate?_ CHAPTER XV THE MACHINE OF CIVILIZATION, AND THE DANGEROUS IGNORANCE CONCERNING IT, SHOWN BY STATESMEN The originating work of inventors of all kinds, and the assistance rendered by countless wise and good men and women, have built up a Machine of Civilization that is surpassingly wonderful and fine.