PHILOSOPHY BEFUTED. 261 



men talked about making it a great motor for mechanical 

 purposes. Philosophy volunteered its demonstrations of the 

 absolute impossibility of such a thing. Still human inge- 

 nuity felt its way carefully onward, until the great fact was 

 developed, that steam was in truth capable of moving ma- 

 chinery, was endowed almost with vitality, and could be 

 made to throw the shuttle and spin. Ingenious men hinted 

 that it might be made to propel water-craft in the place of 

 wind and sails, and thus be harnessed into the service of 

 commerce, as it had already been into that of manufactures. 

 Here again philosophy interposed its axioms, and declared 

 the scheme among the wild vagaries of a distempered fancy. 

 But years rolled on, and the tall ship that swung out upon 

 the broad ocean, and moved forward when the air was still 

 and calmness was on the face of the deep, forward in the eye 

 of the wind forward in the teeth of the storm, that stopped 

 not for billow or blast, gave the lie to philosophy, and scat- 

 tered the theory of the wise like chaff. 



"The lightning, that fierce spirit of the storm, that darted 

 down on its mission of destruction from the black cloud 

 floating in the sky, became a thing of interest to the mechan- 

 ical world, and the question was asked, ' Why cannot the 

 lightning be harnessed into the service of man, and be made 

 utilitarian ?' Philosophy sneered at the wild delusion, but 

 see how that same subtle and mysterious agency has been 

 conquered ? Note how truthfully it carries every word in- 

 trusted to its charge, along thousands of miles of the tele- 

 graph wire, with a speed, in comparison with which, sound 



