REMINISCENCES, ETC. 247 



A third of a century ago, when our labors began, 

 we had no lines of telegraph, no ocean steamships, 

 no street rail-cars, no photographic pictures, no ani- 

 line colors, no kerosene oil, no steam fire-engines, 

 no painless surgical operations, no gun-cotton, no 

 nitro-glycerine, no aluminium, no magnesium, no 

 electro-plating, no spectroscope, no positive knowl- 

 edge of the physical constitution of the stellar 

 worlds, and but five hundred miles of slow steam 

 railway in the United States. Our telescopes and 

 microscopes were defective, and comparatively of 

 low power, and we had few of those delicate scien- 

 tific instruments now so important in every depart- 

 ment of research. 



The last third of a century has been the most 

 active, the most important period of time that has 

 elapsed since time began. Indeed, more of the 

 great resources of Nature have been developed, 

 more of her intricacies unravelled, a deeper pene- 

 tration made into her mysteries, than in all the six 

 thousand years since the advent of man upon our 

 earth. 



Do we who have lived during the accomplishment 

 of these results, and perhaps actively participated 

 in them, realize the stupendous greatness of this 

 epoch ? It is difficult to do this. We are pleased 

 to talk about it, but our natures do not admit of a 

 full realization of the importance of modern scien- 



