CHAP. in. THE CONVEYANCE OF THOUGHT. 23 



actually in operation at Buda Pesth in the form of a 

 telephonic newspaper. At certain fixed hours through- 

 out the day a good reader is employed to send definite 

 classes of news along the wires which are laid to sub- 

 scribers' houses and offices, so that each person is able 

 to hear the particular items he desires, without the delay 

 of its being printed and circulated in successive editions 

 of a newspaper. It is stated that the news is supplied to 

 subscribers in this way at little more than the cost of a 

 daily newspaper, and that it is a complete success. 



We thus see that during the present century two dis- 

 tinct modes of communication with persons at a distance 

 have been discovered and brought into practical use, 

 both of which are perfectly new departures from the 

 methods which, with but slight modifications, had been 

 in use since that early period when picture-writing or 

 hieroglyphics were first invented. 



In the facilities and possibilities of communication 

 with our fellow-men all over the world, the advance 

 made in the present century is not only immensely 

 greater than that effected during the whole preceding 

 period of human history, but is even more marvellous in 

 its results. And it is also much greater in amount than 

 the almost simultaneous advance in facilities for loco- 

 motion, great as these have been. 



