520 [Assembly 



onward through hills and rocks, and over rivers and valleys, with 

 power and speed sin-passing all muscular effort, and hurling vast 

 burdens of the surplus treasures of a western soil to supply the 

 wants of crowded cities. Where once was heard, from fall till spring, 

 the spinning wheel of the lowly, emaciated maiden, is now the deaf- 

 ning buzz of ten thousand spindles. Where once the clumsy craft 

 of olden times, for want of wind and tide, lay floating at random on 

 navigable waters, comes booming now the majestic steamer, with 

 the speed and power ot a hurricane. Where once stood, the frail 

 shanty of logs and mud, through the open joints of which was heard, 

 by night and by day, ^Eolian music of the sporting wind, stands now 

 the magnificent mansion, with its gas and its Croton, and all their 

 enviable accompaniments. Where once the messenger and the post- 

 man, with exhausted steed, were bearing despatches through mud and 

 storm, is now the triumphant car of lightning, mounted upon its 

 highway of wire, and flying between distant cities with the instan- 

 taneousness of thought. Inventive genius is the chief power which 

 breaks up and changes national manners and customs. And this it 

 accomplishes, by the introduction of new modes and means of per- 

 forming: all the necessaries of life. It seizes the natural habiliments 

 of brutes, when no longer useful to them, and the web of the worm, 

 the bark of the flax-stalk, and the bed of the cotton seed, and work- 

 ing them into innumerable varieties of hues and forms, presents the 

 grand display of textures which ornament and protect mankind. 



Inventive genius speaks, and forth issues, continually, new articles 

 of food and raiment, new modes and methods, new means of travel 

 and transportation, new everything, which appertains to national 

 prosperity and individual comfort. And with such rapidity do these 

 changes go on, that every succeeding generation looks back with 

 astonishment at the apparent stupidity of their predecessors. 



Would you see, in striking contrast, the condition of a country with 

 and without the fruits of inventive genius, seek some position from 

 which, at a glance, you can catch a view of its wonderful works j 

 commence, if you please, by glancing at the grand display within 

 this hall; ascend, then, the towering spire of Trinity Church; em- 

 brace thence, in a single view, the abode of more than three hun- 

 dred thousand souls, with all its complicated fixtures and appendages; 

 fountains gratefully playing in public squares, intelligence flying 

 through the air with the speed of light; the endless variety of ves- 

 sels plying to and from this great centre of commerce; sloops, bar- 

 ges and canal boats, filled with choicest provision, multiform towing 



