No. 144.] n 



astounding and almost overwhelming difficulties. If the Romans 

 had possessed the aid of steam and its auxiliaries in combination 

 with their wonderful ambition and energy, Romans would still 

 be the conquerors and rulers of the universe ! "While we flatter 

 ourselves with the name of an enterprising and fast people — 

 while we band the earth with bars of iron, and traverse its cir- 

 cumference with a rapidity truly wonderful — while we cru^h the 

 waves and effect an easy and swift passage across the oceans — 

 while we perform in a single day the labor of an ancient year — 

 still are we made luxuriously idle and imbecile by the very 

 means which should impel us onward with increasing energies; 

 for, as the engineer and his assistants sit idly by, while the mag- 

 nificent engine harmoniously performs its gigantic labor, so 

 watches the w'orld, lost in wonder and admiration, at results thus 

 eanly obtained. That artificial power which would have made 

 the ancients greater has, by comparison, made the moderns less 

 than they might be, if the same energy had continued in practi- 

 cal force as when displayed while creating that power. 



Such wholesale charges may well be doubted when made in the 

 very centre of the scientific world. By an examination of facts 

 easily obtained, they will be most fully substantiated. 



Enter a modern city, the walls of which in many parts vibrate 

 with industrious steam engines, so numerous that the very foliage 

 of the scattered trees and the humble patches of refreshing grass 

 are moistened and nourished by the condensation from the sur- 

 plus vapor, where the inhabitants of that city number half a 

 million, whose chief requirements and almost every want di pend 

 upon the steam engine ; and it will be proof contrary to the fore- 

 going assertion if five hundred persons amongst that half million 

 can be found who understand the character of the very power 

 npon which they are so dependent. 



In a densely populated city the first natural want of its inha- 

 bitants is pure and wholesome water, which all the treasure of its 

 government, if necessary, should be devoted exclusively to obtain? 

 and when obtained, the next and almost parallel necessity is well 

 paved streets, which should absorb the attention of the authori- 



