56 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



The forest trees and beds of coal are so much garnered 

 strength, — strength set free by fire that by expanding steam 

 moves titanic wheels and levers obedient to the will of man. 

 Calling this power to his aid, the engineer hurls the proud ship 

 against wind and tide and moves the heavy laden train with the 

 swiftness of the wind. 



Other and more subtle forces are pressed by man into his 

 service. The mysterious needle that tends ever toward the 

 polar star, guides him in his pathless track upon the ocean. 

 Clouds may shut out the friendly stars, nor land nor light 

 direct his course, but following this unerring guide he passes 

 straight on his way to the desired haven. Danger is thus 

 avoided where the wisdom and skill of man alone would be 

 powerless to direct, time is saved, and the labor of all that go 

 down to the sea in ships is utilized by the magnetic needle. 

 Take from every ship that little finger of steel by which the 

 earth points out the track across her own pathless waters, and 

 the dangers and expenses of all ocean transportation would be 

 doubled. As though this were not enough of magic, the same 

 force that points the needle, darts from city to city and along 

 the ocean's bed from continent to continent, whispering in 

 every hamlet the news of the morning from every quarter of 

 the globe. The former work of weeks and months is pressed 

 into hours and minutes. It tells us of the coming storm, while 

 yet the skies are fair and winds are still. Chemical force at 

 the command of man unlocks elements held in its grasp, and 

 .leaves them free to give their energy to his service. The 

 mingled carbon and nitre, fired by a single spark, let loose the 

 imprisoned gases to change the face of nature and the desti- 

 nies of nations. With gunpowder, man makes his way through 

 mountains of stone, and shakes the affrighted earth as he tears 

 out treasures from the rocks in the deepest mines. He hurls 

 the messengers of freedom, and with thunders of the cannon 

 and bursting shell proclaims the arm of the oppressor broken 

 and the reign of universal liberty and equal laws. 



In all these achievements, we see a partial fulfilment of 

 man's destiny when created the possessor and lord of the earth. 

 He was to have dominion over the earth, and created in the 

 image of God, this dominion could only be complete when he 

 had pressed into service all those forces, through which the 



