Nothing is done. Everything in the world remains to be done or done over. “The greatest picture is not yet painted, the greatest play isn’t written(not even by Shakespeare), the greatest poem is unsung. There isn’t in all the world a perfect railroad, nor a good government, nor a sound law.” Physics, mathematics, and especially the most advanced and exact of the sciences are being fundamentally revised. Chemistry is just becoming a science; psychology, economics, and sociology are awaiting a Darwin, whose work in turn is awaiting an Einstein.
If the rah-rah boys in our colleges could be told this, they might not all be such specialists in football, petting parties, and unearned degrees. They are not told this, however; they are told what is known. This is nothing, philosophically speaking.
Exerpt from Lincoln Steffens’ “The Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens”