292 MAN AND NATURE. 



new agent of human intercourse, but our space pre- 

 vents us saying more of what must doubtless be 

 counted the most wonderful discovery of our own 

 time. 



Canals, though of high antiquity as an invention 

 for transport, have been in great measure superseded 

 by railways. Yet there are two works of this kind 

 one in contemplation, the other partially effected 

 which derive interest from their magnitude, and from 

 their connexion with the new dominion which steam 

 has given to man over the oceans of the globe. If the 

 Atlantic be ever united to the Pacific, and the Mediter- 

 ranean to the Eed Sea and Indian Ocean, by ship- 

 canals, all will be done that can be done to give speed 

 and certainty to the great circuits of intercourse round 

 the globe. We offer no present opinion on the much- 

 disputed matter of the Suez Canal. Even if successful 

 as a navigable passage across the Isthmus, there yet 

 remains the question of profitable return one embra- 

 cing too many contingencies to be settled by anticipa- 

 tion. A few years will determine both these points 

 now standing at issue. 



We have thus spoken of the influence of Man on 

 earth as a miner, mechanician, and engineer. But we 

 cannot quit this topic of his relations to the material 

 world, and the forces which rule or reside in it, with- 

 out speaking of him also as the chemist of the living 

 creation and this in the largest sense which modern 

 science has given to a word so small in its original 

 meaning. He does not, indeed, as such, change the 

 outward aspects of the earth, or govern the natural 



