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touch with the style, and whilst you are turning the iron through 

 them again and again, you separately compose all the ideas in 

 your mind. Wonderful to relate, the far-distant fi-iend sees 

 the voluble iron tremble without the touch of any person, and 

 run now hither, now tliither ; conscious he bends over it, and 

 marks the teaching of the rod, and follows reading here and 

 there the letters which are put together into words ; he per- 

 ceives what is needed, and learns it by the teaching of the hon. 

 And, moreover, when he sees the rod stand stUl, he, in his turn, 

 if he thinks there is anything to be answered, in like manner, by 

 touching the various letters, Avrites it back to his friend. Oh I 

 may this mode of writing prove usefiU. Safer and quicker 

 thus would a letter speed, nor have to encoimter the snares of 

 robbers or impediments of retarding rivers. A prince might 

 do the whole business (of his coiTCspondence) for himself Avith 

 his own hands. We, children of scribes, emerging from the inky 

 flood, would then hang up our pens in votive offering on the 

 shores of the magnet.' — Bembo having thus concluded, we are 

 told his verses were largely commended for the excellence of 

 their imitation of the style of Lucretius, but for nothing more. 

 Strada, no doubt, composed aU the poems in his ' Prolusiones' 

 that illustrated the styles of the different ancient poets who were 

 represented on this occasion ; but the question is, what foundation 

 was there in fact for the subject of magnetic influence and its 

 applicability to telegraphic purposes ever having been improvised 

 on any occasion by Cardinal Bembo in presence of Leo X. ? Is 

 there any trace of this embryo of a gi-eat fact struggling into 

 form before its time, any intuitive perception, however vaguely 

 expressed, of the possibility of its being, to be found in the 

 writings of this eminent man ? It matters little, however, 

 whether Strada or Bembo originated the idea. There is a suffi- 

 ciently long interval between the tunes of either and our own, to 

 make a marvel of the conception even of the possible accomplish- 

 ment of a mighty plan for conveying thoughts, with the ra- 

 pidity of lightning, thousands of mUes over extensive regions, by 

 an agent intangible and subtle, rendered manageable by a simple 



