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                              ANNO DOMINI
                                 2071.


                  Translated from the Dutch Original,

             WITH PREFACE AND ADDITIONAL EXPLANATORY NOTES,

                                   BY

                        Dr. Alex. V. W. BIKKERS.



                                LONDON:
                 WILLIAM TEGG, Pancras Lane, Cheapside.
                                 1871.







TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.


The late Artemus Ward was in the habit of quoting--either from his
own or another man's store of wit--"Never prophesy unless you know
for certain." There is, however, a particular mode of foretelling
which is neither dangerous nor venturesome; that process, namely,
by which inferences are being drawn from analogous things that have
come to pass, and applied to the contemplation of future events. The
little book here presented in an English translation may serve as
an illustration in point. It was originally published in the Dutch
language, the author hiding himself behind the nom de plume of
Dr. Dioscorides. If success goes for anything--and who is prepared
to say what it does not go for--we launch it in its new form with
more than sufficient confidence. Even within the narrow geographical
limits of the Netherlands it has rapidly passed through three editions,
and a German scholar has deemed it not unworthy of a translation in
his native tongue.

The present publication is more and at the same time less than a
translation; more, because it has been prepared for a different
class of readers than it was originally intended for; less, because
in some instances, and at one point especially, we thought we had
some reason to apply the pruning-knife to obnoxious excrescences,
as no doubt they would have proved in a new soil. The foot-notes
have either been added with a view to ensure a perfect understanding
on the part of the reader, or to secure for the little work as wide
a circulation as possible. So far with regard to its form, object,
and origin. There are the boundaries of our province.


A. V. W. B.

London, 1871.







TABLE OF CONTENTS.


    ALEUTIC TIME
    DISTRIBUTION-OF-WARM-AIR SOCIETY
    VERRE SANS FIN
    AGE OF ALUMINIUM
    HELIOCHROMES
    ENERGEIATHECS
    NATIONAL LIBRARY
    NINETEENTH-CENTURY BOOKS
    COMPULSORY EDUCATION
    GENEALOGICAL MUSEUM
    SOLAR LIGHT
    THE TELEPHON
    GENERAL BALLOON COMPANY
    TRAVELLING DIALECT
    NO MORE WAR
    FREE TRADE; UNIVERSAL LOCOMOTION
    MODERN TELESCOPES
    CHANNEL BRIDGE
    NORTH HOLLAND SUBMERGED
    UNIVERSITY EDUCATION
    LOSS OF DUTCH COLONIES
    RAILWAY NETS
    GEOGRAPHICAL CHANGES IN EUROPE
    ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORIES
    CALCULATORIA
    TIN MINES IN THE MOON
    UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE
    ANTI 1-2 LEAGUE
    WOMAN'S RIGHTS
    THE NEW ZEALAND OF THE FUTURE







ANNO DOMINI 2071.


When comparing the present condition of society with that of past
centuries the question naturally arises, what will the future be?

Will the same progress which, in our own times especially, has been
of such vast dimensions, and manifested itself in so many directions,
continue to be progressive? And if so--for who could think of reaction,
since the art of printing has guarded against any furrow of the
human mind being ever effaced--where is to be the ultimate goal of
the progress of our successors? Where are we to look for the fruits
of those innumerable germs which the present generation is sowing
for the benefit of those that will come after them?

These, and similar other questions, occupied my mind when, seated
one afternoon in my comfortable arm-chair, I allowed my thoughts
freely to wander amid the manes of those that preceded us. I thought
of our own Musschenbroek, Gravesande, Huyghens, and Stevin, and of
what would be their surprise were they to reappear on this earth,
and gaze upon the marvellous works of modern machinery; I passed
in review a Newton and Galileo, with so many others, founders of an
edifice which they themselves would not now recognise. I thought of
steam engines and electric telegraphs, of railways and steamboats, of
mountain tunnels and suspension bridges, of photography and gasworks,
of the amazing strides lately made by chemistry, of telescopes and
microscopes, of diving bells and aeronautics; aye, and of a hundred
other things, which, in motley array, wildly crossed my mind,
though all corresponding in this that they loudly proclaimed the