But previous failures to peep into the future effectively shall not deter the author from another attempt to pierce the veil hiding our fate. He will proceed by “extrapolating” the curves representing progress made hitherto, but will always allow for unexpected new departures in what are already known to be possible directions. * * * * * _Transport and Communications._――The most conspicuous changes in our mode of life have been brought about by improved means of transport. Railways and steamships have become essential to Great Britain, largely owing to the fact that food-supplies have to be purchased in exchange for exported manufactures. But even in non-industrial countries the railway has entered very largely into the life of the people. It is part of the essential attribute of life which seeks diversity and a fuller activity of the senses. Life is, in effect, prolonged when it is made to contain more and more detail. The social life of a person is roughly measured by the number of people with whom he converses in the course of a day. Improved transport means facilities for extending this number. It also means an enlargement of a person’s sphere of influence, of his “area of effective occupation.” In business, it gives an opportunity of increasing turnover, and thus reducing costs. It also facilitates competition, both in buying and selling, and thus tends to enforce the law of supply and demand and other enactments of what used to be called the “dismal science,” but now ranks as the most “actual” of all the sciences. Postal and telegraphic facilities have the same general effect of diversifying and extending life. The telephone has produced an entirely new form of social intercourse, and a new privileged class. By acquiring a telephone number, we obtain entrance into a hall where rapid and varied communication becomes an abundant source of activity, information, and amusement. Increased facilities of this kind also tend to cement a nation of one language into a closely organized whole, so that its cohesion and its influence abroad are strengthened. The “temperature” of the national life is raised, and it increases in proportion. An increased energy also accelerates the rate of progress, so that it tends to spread like a fire. What this acceleration will mean we can as yet only dimly surmise. A time will come, no doubt, when we may crowd into an hour a variety of experiences which our ancestors would have extended over a lifetime. We need not necessarily do so, but the mere fact that it is possible will add a zest and a richness to life such as we, with all our advantages, can as yet hardly conceive. But the general effect will be to reduce more and more the limitations now imposed upon us by space. It will no doubt be eventually possible to get into communication with anybody on earth at a moment’s notice, provided that person is willing.