Lord Macaulay's quote is representative of the unbridled triumphalism of that period. Scientists also believed in a thing called ether, that non-white peoples were non-human, that females were a different species, and that through this idea called Progress, war and famine would soon be eradicated (we all saw how that turned out). And we had not yet consumed the petri dish known as Earth (i.e., soiled the sheets).
We've all since learned a little better (well maybe excepting a few like Steven Pinker and Silicon Valley techno-utopians hucksters). We would all do well not to substitute inspirational quotations (one form of cliché) for fact-based arguments, for that way Disneyland lies.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts."