Man is the artificer of his own fate.

He may lament his weakness and folly; but "he has perhaps still more reason to be confident in his energies when he recollects from what point he has set out and to what heights he has been capable of elevating himself." The supernatural visitant paints a rather rosy picture of the ancient Egyptian and Assyrian kingdoms.

But it would be a mistake to infer from their superficial splendour that the inhabitants generally were wise or happy.

The tendency of man to ascribe perfection to past epochs is merely "the discoloration of his chagrin." The race is not degenerating; its misfortunes are due to ignorance and the mis-direction of self-love.
Two principal obstacles to improvement have been the difficulty of transmitting ideas from age to age, and that of communicating them rapidly from man to man.

These have been removed by the invention of printing.