78 APPLICATION OF STEAM. 



every body that has a pitcher of water, is, with 

 proper machinery and skilful management, not 

 only more governable than the highest bred horse, 

 but more gentle than any lamb that ever sported 

 in the meadow. At the same time it could, if 

 need were, bring the power of ten millions of 

 horses to bear on a single point ; and were it to 

 answer any purpose, if man could find the machi- 

 nery, this simple property of water would give 

 the power of cleaving the earth in twain. But, 

 notwithstanding, it can spin a thread finer than 

 gossamer, and weave it into gauze which will float 

 in the air like a vapour ; it will grind at the mill, 

 toil in the manufactory, and it will print a book ; 

 and the people of England enjoy now ten times 

 the comforts enjoyed by their fathers, and disperse 

 a portion of those comforts to all the nations of 

 the world, and receive the produce of all climates 

 in return, just because a skilful observer of nature 

 discovered that water resists being heated above 

 two hundred and twelve degrees. One would think 

 that only a trifling discovery ; and if the little fact 

 were told without any of the consequences, no- 

 body would give a farthing for the information. 

 But great trees grow from little seeds. The 

 Thames, notwithstanding the length of its course 

 and the beauty and usefulness of its tide, steals 

 back again from the sea in vapour ; and it is tem- 

 pered with so many delightful sensibilities, that it 

 waters the fields, and refreshes the animals, even 

 when on its aerial flight to those mountains 

 which collect and give forth the fountain-springs. 

 The beginnings of all things are small ; and if we 

 take weight and measure as our proofs of ex- 

 istence, the origin of every thing is in nothing. 



