Electricity 



warning to a whole country-side, instead of being 

 limited to the messages which might be read 

 in his waving hands. All that the modern en- 

 gineer v/as able to do with steam for locomotion 

 is raised to a higher plane by the advent of his 

 new power, while the long-distance transmission 

 of electrical energy is contracting the dimensions 

 of the planet to a scale upon which its cataracts 

 . in the wilderness drive the spindles and looms of 

 the factory town, or illuminate the thoroughfares 

 of cities. Beyond and above all such services as 

 these, electricity is the corner-stone of physical 

 generalization, a revealer of truths impenetrable 

 by any other ray. 



The subjugation of fire has done much in giv- 

 ing man a new independence of nature, a mighty 

 armoury against evil. In curtailing the most 

 arduous and brutalizing forms of toil, electricity, 

 that subtler kind of fire, carries this emancipa- 

 tion a long step further, and, meanwhile, be- 

 stows upon the poor many a luxury which but 

 lately was the exclusive possession of the rich. 

 In more closely binding up the good of the bee 

 with the welfare of the hive, it is an educator and 

 confirmer of every social bond. In so far as it 

 proffers new help in the war on pain and disease 

 it strengthens the confidence of man in an Order 

 of Right and Happiness which for so many dreary 

 ages has been a matter rather of hope than of 

 vision. Are we not, then, justified in holding 

 electricity to be a multiplier of faculty and in- 

 sight, a means of dignifying mind and soul, un- 

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