310 CAUSES OF PROGRESS. 



graph, that mocks at time and annihilates space ? Hark 1 

 there is a new sound breaking the stillness of midnight, and 

 startling the mguntain echoes from their sleep of ages ! It 

 is the scream of the steam-whistle, the snort of the iron horse, 

 the thunder of his hoofs of steel, rushing forward with the 

 speed of the wind, shaking the ground like an earthquake as 

 he moves. A new motor has been harnessed into the service 

 of man, and made to fly with his messages swifter than sound ? 

 It is the winged lightning ; and as it flashes along the wires 

 stretched from city to city, and across continents, carries 

 with unerring certainty every word committed to its charge. 

 Ocean steamers have made but a ferriage of seas. The 

 photographic art has made even the light of the sun a sub- 

 stitute for the pencil of the artist. Everywhere, in all the 

 departments of science, in every branch of the arts, improve- 

 ment, progress, has been going on with a sublimity of 

 achievement unknown in any age of the past. These things 

 are mighty motors which push along civilization, throwing a 

 wonderful energy into the forward impulse of the world. 

 But remember, that though these results are brought about 

 by the advance in the mechanic arts, yet that advance is 

 based upon a deeper philosophy, a profounder wisdom, than 

 mere perfectability in those arts. Take the steam-engine it 

 is a great contrivance, a wonderful invention ; but the great- 

 est of all was the discovery of the principle and operation, the 

 practical phenomena of steam itself. The telegraphic ma- 

 chine was a great invention ; but the great thing was the 

 development of the science of electricity, the discovery of 



