If 46.] Progressive Changes of Matter. 213 



Could the changes protluced by the labors of man be brought 

 within the scope of our observation, they would not fail to excite 

 our wonder. In a past age we penetrated the shades of the " wild 

 wood," and marked out, perhaps on the margin of some stream, a 

 territory that can be scanned by the eye from one observation, 

 covered with the deep dense forest, through which the wild beasts 

 made their paths, and where the " airy tribes of life" failed not 

 to charm them in the solitudes of nature. This period we conceive 

 to be yesterday, to-day on the location we behold magnificent 

 temples rearing their glittering spires higher than the primeval 

 trees. New life and new light breaks in upon the pathways once 

 trodden by forest animals. And at the same elevation and over 

 the same spot of ground where the " bird of wisdom" may have 

 perched, and during the shades of night hooted its forebodings of 

 the coming storm, the speculator may now repose in his chamber, 

 sighing over the changes in the affairs of commerce, and doling 

 the tempest of the coming future. Now should these changes be 

 regarded as a matter of fancy rather than as a matter of fact, we 

 may go into some city in the western country, and consult that 

 personage so often mentioned in the public journals, the oldest 

 inhahitant. 



The labors of man in annihilating the ponderous forests and 

 spreading out cultivated fields to the light of day, would be 

 wonderful indeed, were not the change gradual and familiar to 

 us aU. A reverse order of things has at times taken place during 

 the history of man. Where we now traverse a wild uncultivated 

 country, nations may have flourished and fell. Where the " fox 

 looks out from the windows, the rank grass waving round his 

 head," the massive walls of Balclutha " rose in grandeur and 

 tottered in ruins." 



W'hen we turn our attention more particularly to the succession 

 of changes in the labors of man, we find in many of them an ap- 

 proximation to that point beyond which they cannot advance. 

 In the early history of mankind intelligence was transmitted from 

 one locality to another by fleet pedestrians. To this mode suc- 

 ceeded the charioteer, and in this latter mode various improve- 



