176 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



DECEMBER lit, 183a. 



MISCELLANY. 



THE FAITHFUL FRIEND. 



My father left ten iliousand pounds, 



And will'd it all to me ; 

 My friends, like sun-flies, flock'd around, 



As kind as kind i-ould be. 



This sent a buck, and that a hare, 



And some the Lord knows what. 

 In short, I thought I could declare 



No man such Iriends had got, 



Thev ate my meat, they drank my wine, 



In truth so kind were they. 

 That be the weather wet or fine, 



They'd dine witii me next day. 



They came — and like the circling year. 



The circling glass went round ; 

 'Till something whispered in my car, 



" Ah, poor ten thousand pound !" 



" Pshaw ! stuff!" cried I, " I'll hear it not ; 



" Besides, such friends are mine, 

 " That what they have will be my lot, 



•' So push about the wine !" 



The glasses rung, the jcsl prevaii'd, 



■'Twas summer every day ! 

 'Till like a flower, by blight assail'd, 

 My thousands dropt away. 



Alas ! and so my friends dropt off, 



Like rose-leaves from the stera^ 

 My fallen stale but met their scoff. 



And I no more saw them ! 



One friend, one honest friend remained. 



When all Uie locusts flew. 

 One that ne'er slmmk, nor (nenishipfiign'd — 



My faithful DOG! — 'twas you I 



From the I.iverpoot Times. 

 THE TRIUMPHS OP SCIENCE AND ART. 



Whether the caricatures wliich represent a steain 

 engine as flying like a balloon tlirough the air, 

 shall ever become any thing more tlitin a caricature 

 may be doubted ; but such have been the achieve- 

 ment of science and art within the la^ three quar- 

 ters of a century, tliat it is really diffidilt to fix any 

 limits to their future conquests. To justify us in 

 jM'onouncing any thing impossible iamachiues, it 

 ought to be in opposition to some law (f nature and 

 not merely requiring an immense ex snt or diffi- 

 cult application of power. And so marvellous 

 have been the inventions and discove ies in every 

 branch of science, and in all the arts, ince the be- 

 ginning of the last reign, that, if th y had been 

 predicted in the year 1760, most men would have 

 thought the projihecy deserved to rabk with the 

 Arabian story of the erection of Aladditis palace in 

 a single night. 1 



When the pack horse with his bell viis the only 

 means of conveying merchandize throuali the land, 

 and when the carrier conducted his striiit of horses 

 along tracks always made to pass over tne summit 

 of the very highest hills, the vision ofp modern 

 mail coach glancing through our valleys on road.s 

 nearly as smooth and level as a bowling jreen, and 

 conveying goods and passengers at the 'ate of 1 1 

 or 12 miles an hour, would have been rtgarded as 

 the work of some supernatural beings, ntt clogged 

 with mortal clay. A man who should hen have 

 imaghied that a distance of four huncred miles 

 could have been performed in forty houfs without 

 difficulty or danger, would have been thought 

 worthy of a palace amongst the philosophers of 

 Laputa. I 



A spinner at his wheel, twisting and twirling 

 the live-long d.iy to make some paltry hanks of 

 yarn would have gazed at the interior of a mod- 

 ern spiiiuing mill — where thotisands of spindles 

 are whirled with incredible velocity, moved by no 



power \ isible to the S]iectator, with a su|)er.stitious 

 couviction that the whole was the work of un- 

 blessed powers. To tell him that the force which 

 moved the mighty ajiparatus of the factory was 

 earthly, yet that it was neither the force of men or 

 horses, neither the strength of a torrent nor thq 

 piping winds of heaven, but nothing more nor 

 then tlie steam or boiling water, would only havi 

 excited his indignation at the boldness of the im- 

 posture which it was attempted to ptxhn upon himl 



To show to one of those disorderly persons whi 

 return from taverns after the hour of curfew, aui 

 who of old were wont to group through tlie EgyptJ 

 ian darkness of our streets to their own houses, 

 the splendidly illuminated street of London or 

 Liverpool, he would be blinded with light imd fan- 

 cy himself in the hall of Pandemonium, lit up 

 ' by subtle magic,' with blazing cressets of naphta 

 and asphaltos. If he could understand that these 

 brilliant stars of light proceeded from an invisible 

 vapor, which circulated for miles under the 

 streets, he would be only the more perfectly con 

 vinced that he has gone prematurely into tlie 

 lower world. 



Since the invention of printing, tlic power of 

 man to dissemmate knowledge has been increase^ 

 almost beyond calculation. Even within the la^ 

 thirty years a prodigious augmentation luis takei 

 place in tliis power. — Before the improvement 

 Earl Stanhope, from 3 to 400 sheets might 

 printed per hour at the press ; the steam-press whicl 

 now works the Times newspai)er, prints foi* 

 thousand sheets per hour, or more than a .shei 

 per second. It may be easily proved, that to wrinfe 

 by hand the number of newspapers circulated by 

 the Times, daily, would require a million and a 

 half scribes ; yet they are )irmtcd with ease Ijy 

 about two dozen men. Such is the effect of skil- 

 ful division of labor, that a debate of eight or ten 

 hours duration in the House of Commons, in:iy be 

 fully and ably reported, printed, and pnblislnd so 

 as to be retid in London within three or four hours 

 after its termination, and si.xty miles disuuice 

 from the metropolis, before the spealiers ut" the 

 previous night have riseu from their beds. 



in navigation, as in printiug, invention slum- 

 bered for centuies, and then suddenly awoke in 

 the wondrous steam vessel. — Steam n.-ivi^ation 

 IS probably yet in its infancy, yet it has already 

 ett'ected an astonishing extension of intercourse be- 

 tween all parts of the British Isles, the widely sep- 

 arated towns and territories of the United States, 

 and several of the countries of Europe. It was 

 not uncommon a dozen years ago, to wait in this 

 jjort for days and even weeks before a vessel could 

 sail to Ireland; and often have vessels been detain- 

 ed in the channel days and even weeks by calms 

 or adverse winds. By the steam packets «c pass 

 daily and with certainty in a single night from 

 Liveqiool to Dublin ; and they operate as bridges 

 connecting the sister island with England. Cahns 

 ilo not retard their flight over the waves ; adverse 

 tides and winds, though they somewhat impede, 

 cannot arest their progress. Instinct witli power, 

 ' they walk the waters lilce a thing of life. ' By 

 their aid the Voyage to India will be made, ere 

 many years have elapsed, scarcely a more for- 

 midable thing than a journey from London to Scot- 

 laud was a century ago. 



.Such are a few of the more striking inventions 

 and improvements of modern times. — Yet inven- 

 tion is not exhausted. These seem to be hut the 

 commencement of an endless series ; and the late 



exjiermieiits of locomotive carriages on our rail- 

 way gives quite a new idea of what science and 

 art may yet do to quicken tlie transport of travel- 

 lers and goods through tlie kiud. Though the 

 idea of moving a carriage by a mechanical power 

 whhin it, is not absolutely new, yet ithas never beea 

 stici-essfully reduced to practice till our own day ; 

 animate power applied either externally or mter- 

 nally, has always been used for the ])urposes of lo- 

 comution. To place a steam engine on wheels, 

 and to make u move both itself and an additional 

 weight, was a bold conception ; the first essaya 

 were clumsy and unpromismg, and oven tip to the 

 ]iresent time a machine has never been seen in 

 operation which was calculated for the rapid con- 

 veyance either of passengers or conmiodities. 



The perforniiuice of the Rocket and Novelty 

 give a sudden spur to our drowsy imaginations,, 

 and made our ideas fly as fa.st as the machines 

 lliemselves. These engines with their ajiparatus, 

 skiui over the earth at more than double the speed 

 iif the lighest and fastest mail, dra\ni by the swift- 

 est blooil horses, luid driven by the most desperate 

 coachman over the smoothest roads in England. 

 Ip wards of thirty miles per hour! — let us see — 

 at tliis rate we reach IMauchester in an hour, Bir- 

 mingham in three hours, London, Edinburgh, or 

 (;lasgow, in six hours, and you may glide along 

 witli this bird-lilie speed with as little discomfort | 

 its if ycm were in your arm-chair, re.iding a volume 

 of the Diamond Poets, without being disturbed by 

 a suigle jolt ; nay, I believe it would not be difficult 

 to write. If the length of the journey made it 

 worth while, I should expect to see rail road 

 coaches fitted up with libraries and escrutoires ; 

 iiut it will soon he nearly useless to take up a book 

 (or so short a journey as one or two hundred miles. 



On a well constructeil railway, like that be- 

 tween Liverpool lUid Manchester, there is less 

 danger in moving at the rate of 30 miles per hour 

 thiui on a turnpike road. On the railway there is 

 not a single turn, and scarcely a single inequality ; 

 in these respects the engineer has boldly and wise- 

 ly aimed at perfection, imd there is thereby incur- 

 red what many regard an extravagant expense. 

 The chief sources of danger in travelling rapidly 

 on turnpike roads are, first, hills ; second, turn- 

 ings on the road ; third, unruly horses ; fourth, 

 ineetingother horses. No one of these dangers exi.st 

 on the railway, and, therefore, it is difficult to limit 

 the speed at which we may travel with safety. 



THE NEW ENG£.ANp FjVRMER 



Is published every Wednesday Evening, at ^-^ per annum, 

 payable at the end of the year — but those who pay witliin 

 sixty days from the time of subscribing, are entitled to a deduc- 

 tion of lifty cents. 



[O^ No paper will be sent to a distance without payment 

 Being made in advance. 



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 Baltimore — I. I. Hitchcocic, Publisher of American Farmer 

 Cincimiuti — S. C. Parkhurst, !23 Lower Market-street. 

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 Middlebury, Vt. — Wight Chapman, Merchant. 

 Hartford — Goodwin &. Co. Booksellers. 

 Sprin«fetd. Ms. — E. Edwards, Merchajit. 

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 Portsmouth, N. H.—1. W. Foster, Bookseller. 

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 Augusta, Me. — W»i. Mann, Druggist. 

 Hmfax, N. S. — P. J. Holland, Esq. Editor of Recorder 

 Montreal L. C. Geo. Bent. 



Printed for Geo. C. Barrett by John Ford, who 

 executes every description of Book and Fancy Printing 

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