MAN AND NATUKE. 287 



own country as the example, which man, as a miner, 

 is bringing about on the earth. A still stronger im- 

 press of genius and power is that which is presented 

 by the great railways which now so largely traverse its 

 surface; and by the tunnels, embankments, viaducts, 

 and bridges which contribute to this vast scheme of 

 human intercommunication. Though a generation has 

 scarcely passed by since these works were begun, they 

 are already so familiar to us, that we lose the full 

 sense of their grandeur, and of all they denote of pro- 

 gress in the condition of mankind. Yet how strange 

 the alteration, even to the eye, in the aspect of a 

 country traversed and intersected by these lines of 

 iron-road vacant and still at one moment, a minute 

 afterwards giving passage to a train, rushing along at 

 the rate of thirty, forty, or fifty miles in the hour, 

 laden with human beings and the commodities of the 

 world. We know no spectacle more striking ap- 

 palling we might almost call it than that of an 

 express train thus sweeping by in its course. Accus- 

 tomed as we are to see traction performed by animal 

 labour, there is a peculiar strangeness in witnessing 

 this wonderful trick done without any agent obvious to 

 the eye. We know that the power is in the loco- 

 motive, but the mode of action is unseen, and to most 

 people unknown. 



It would be needless to dwell on those statistical 

 facts relating to railroads, in England and elsewhere, 

 which are every year pressed upon us in larger figures 

 and more ample details the amount of capital invested, 

 the length of roads made, the number of miles run, the 



