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vention of the steam engine alone, and its application, to the varioue 

 branches of industry — is daily performing more labor, and producing 

 more of the necessaries and comforts of life, than the physical labor of 

 any twenty millions of men and forty millions of horses upon the face 

 of the earth, and setting free that proportion of human labor and time, 

 to be devoted to the cultivation of the intellect, or to other branches of 

 production. Its eflFects, like that of almost all inventions, are universal, 

 benefitting, if not alike, yet to a very great extent, every department 

 of industry, and all classes of men. But take for example, the farmer 

 in the interior of any of the north-western States, (or of any of the 

 States :) but for the steamboat and the locomotive, his wheat might be 

 worth from 37 to 50 cents per bushel, his corn from a shilhng to 18 

 cents ; the steam engine has doubled these prices ; the farmer can there- 

 fore obtain double the necessaries and conveniences of life with the 

 same amount of labor. It has also lessened the price of all the pro- 

 ducts of other countries imported to this, and of almost all the goods 

 used by the farmei"s, almost in a like proportion. So that the inventors 

 of the steam engine — the Marquis of Worcester, who first conceived 

 the crude idea — Savary, who first constructed a crude engine — New- 

 comen <fe Cawley, who improved, and Watt, who perfected its principle, 

 Fulton, who improved its details and first applied it as a means of lo- 

 comotion — these men, long since in their graves, are even now perform- 

 ing for the farmere of our country one-half their labor, and a very large 

 proportion of the labor of every department of life. Nay, they have 

 peopled the wilderness, built up cities and created States, where, but for 

 their labors, the wild beast and the savage would still have been roam- 

 ing through their native wilds. 



Another law of human labor — for I can only touch a few main prin- 

 ciples. It is not necessary, neither is it possible for any member of so- 

 ciety in an advanced stage of civilization, to acquire a knowledge of all 

 the sciences and arts, nor to perform for himself all the branches of 

 physical labor, necessary to the supply of his wants. This will be evi- 

 dent to every one the moment he considers his own wants, and the man- 

 ner in which they are supplied ; how many of the arts and sciences of 

 which he is ignorant, how many branches of labor which he is powei- 

 iess to peiform, how many productions from countries which he never 

 saw, are aU brought into requisition, for the supply of hie most ordi- 



