That the future of invention is to be as brilliant as its past, every omen indicates. In what direction will it proceed? Probably in all directions. But the line of direction that will occur the first to many, is probably in aerial flight. Doubtless it is in aerial flight that the greatest advance has been made since flight was first successfully accomplished in 1903; and doubtless it is in that line that the greatest progress is being made now. The enormous speeds already achieved; the growing size of both aeroplanes and dirigibles; their increasing speed, safety and convenience; the fact that roads are not needed for aerial transportation as they are for carriages and railway trains, or deep water channels as for water craft; and the comparative cheapness with which people and light packages can be carried swiftly and far, all point to a vast increase in aerial transportation, and a great modification in all our modes of living in consequence. Akin to transportation is communication:--but in communication, one may reasonably feel that we have arrived almost at the boundary line, not only of the possible but even the desirable. For we have almost instantaneous communication all over the surface of the earth and under almost all the ocean, by the telegraph and telephone, using wires and cables; and nearly equally good communication by radio telegraph, using no material connection whatever. The wireless telephone is following fast on the heels of the wireless telegraph; and by it we can already telephone hundreds of miles between stations on land and sea, and carry on conversation for several miles between fast moving aeroplanes. But progress is going on rapidly also in the older fields of invention. The ocean steamship, especially the battleship, is growing in size, speed and safety; so is the locomotive, so is the automobile. Because of the progress in all the useful arts and sciences, buildings of all kinds are being constructed higher and larger, and more commodious and safe; civil engineering works of all description--roads, canals, bridges and tunnels are setting their durable marks of progress all over the earth; the uses of electricity are growing, and showing every indication that they will continue so to do; and so are the uses of chemistry and light and heat. And through all the industrial world, in manufactures of every kind, we see the same unmistakable signs of progress, increasing progress and increasing rate of progress.