17 



thought that Henry, Morse and other scientists would 

 develop the grand idea, the spark of which was thus 

 struck out by Franklin, into the electric telegraph, into 

 electric lighting, into electric motion over a railway? 

 Well, I cannot venture to enumerate what are to be the 

 exhibits of electrical phenomena. And, when we find 

 that the human voice can penetrate space to immense 

 distances; that speech in such a room as this can be 

 transmitted to a cylinder, recording every word and the 

 tone of every word that is spoken, and that then — how 

 long a time afterwards has not yet, I believe, been de- 

 termined — that same cylinder can be unrolled and the 

 words can be again uttered, and the speech, whether it 

 be one of wisdom or of folly, be repeated to the world 

 for good or for evil, as the case may be, v/hat is the 

 unfolding of the ancient papyri to such a wonderful 

 discovery as this ? 



How, my associates, can we bring ourselves to realize 

 what has been accomplished during our own lifetime 

 in these respects? And yet the men of science are fear- 

 lessly looking forward, making, day by day, new dis- 

 coveries in archaeology, geology, palaeontology, in chem- 

 istry, mechanics, and physics, with their great variety 

 of applications. 



And we, who are approaching the evening of life, 

 and realize what we have enjoyed in so many discov- 

 eries and so much usefulness, cannot hope that we shall 

 be permitted to see all the glorious developments that 

 yet remain to be produced by the operation of the hu- 

 man mind, by the application of the principles which 

 lie at the foundation of applied science. But when the 

 time comes for our departure hence, I trust that we 

 may all realize that we have been permitted to live in 



PKOC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC. XXVII. 131. C. I'UINTED JAN. 27, 1890. 



