AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 125 



it will be applied ! What a slave it becomes, toiling in our 

 ranks ! When steam first applied its infant shoulders to lift the 

 kettle-cover before the eyes of Watt, how limited its expectant 

 uses even to the wildest hopes of that fortunate thinker ! Now, 

 behold the Giant of the nineteenth centurj'^, how he is compelled 

 to tug and strain the tireless sinews of his strength, in boundless 

 fields of usefulness and labor ! See how bravely he bears us 

 through the storm. Insensible to cold and careless of sleep, be- 

 hold the snow that blockades our patli fly before liim in the dim 

 star-light ! With mouth full of fire, and nostrils expanded with 

 smoke, hear him laugh defiantly at the solsticial rays, beneath 

 which every other laborer would melt. See him fm-row the bil- 

 lowy brine for millions of miles, and interchange the growth of 

 different zones. He spans the seas with bridges. He enters the 

 factory, and, seizing its central crank, he plies its complicated 

 machinery with inconceivable velocity and power. He weaves 

 our garments and carves our furniture. He multiiDlies our 

 thoughts in book and newspaper, and impels them through the 

 world. He bores his way through rock and mountain, and leaves 

 an avenue for the flow of commerce. He grinds the grain of 

 continents, and carries it to meet the necessities of man. He 

 clinches the tough quartz, and, crushing it in his iron fist, com- 

 pels it to surrender the golden treasure it so tightly held. He 

 lifts and excavates; he planes, and saws, and hammers, and yet, 

 with infinite and ethereal delicacy, he points the finest needle 

 and draws the metallic threads. No labor is too undignified for 

 him to perform — no task too heavy for Mm to accomplish. He 

 delights in noise, and dirt, and soot, and smoke. He is not 

 afraid of his dainty fingers. Wherever work is to be done, there 

 is his home. Whenever a difiicult job is placed before him, his 

 iron muscles fairly thrill with joy. See how, in the few years of 

 his wonderful activity, whole forests have gone down his throat, 

 leaves, and boughs, and mighty trunks ! And who shall say that 

 this laborious Titan has yet fully got himself in harness 1 What 

 we have seen him do, is merely preparatory service — the first 

 trial of his boyish strength, before commencing the serious busi- 

 ness of his life. To search out for him new modes of toil, will 

 furnish employment for man, perchance, while the world 

 endures. 



In stimulating the progress of these great interests of the coun- 

 try, your Institution, whose twenty-seventh anniversary we are 

 now celebrating, has been of eminent service. It was the first 



