The number of these savages is declining by the year in a terrifying way; soon they will disappear from the soil that they did not know how to cultivate, and today it can be said without exaggeration that the very hours of their existence are numbered.
To summarize what I have said to this point: First, discoveries and inventions secure the life of societies, enhance their comfort, heighten the precision, physical power, senses, and mental powers of individuals, saving time and money. We have found, secondly, that the number of inventions grows amazingly with each century, and at present even with each year, and as a result the civilized peoples are bettering themselves with extraordinary speed. Thirdly and finally, we have seen that savage peoples incapable of accepting civilization, incapable of understanding and profiting from discoveries and inventions, perish and give place to civilized tribes.
A curious feeling overcomes us when our thoughts course over the enormous expanses of today's human knowledge. We know part of the universe that is home to 270 million suns, we know Earth and, in it, several great landmasses, thousands of islands, tremendous expanses of seas and oceans, a host of mountains, rivers, lakes, mines, forests, deserts – and we know not only their locations but also their dimensions, the riches they contain, the characteristic traits that differentiate one from another. We know tens of thousands of plants and animals, their external appearance, their internal structure, their way of life, and the uses that they can offer us. We know myriad stones, liquids, and gases, not only by color, smell and other superficial characteristics, but in addition we know the materials of which they are built, we know the uses to which we can put them, and so on. And
