184 THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. [CHAP. XIII. 



pie of the moral as of the material world, and that we know, 

 from the posthumous writings of one who had lived on intimate 

 terms with the originators of the Tractarian movement in Oxford, 

 that a recoil from doubts derived from the study of the German 

 rationalists, led directly to their departure in an opposite direc 

 tion. &quot; They flung themselves,&quot; says Blanco White, writing in 

 1837, &quot;on a phantom which they called Church. Their plan 

 was to stop all inquiry,&quot; and &quot; to restore popery, excluding the 

 pope.&quot;* Meanwhile, the attempt to revive the credulity of the 

 middle ages, and to resuscitate a belief in all the miracles of 

 mediaeval saints, has produced, as might naturally have been 

 expected, another reaction, giving strength to a party called the 

 anti-supernaturalists, who entirely reject all the historical evi 

 dence in favor of the Scripture miracles. Their leader in New 

 England, Mr. Theodore Parker, is the author of a work of great 

 erudition, originality, and earnestness (lately reprinted in England), 

 in which, while retaining a belief in the Divine origin of Chris 

 tianity, and the binding nature of its moral code, he abandons the 

 greater part of the evidences on which its truth has hitherto been 

 considered to repose. I heard this author, during my late stay 

 in Boston, preach to a congregation respectable for its numbers 

 and station. 



Next to the new churches and fountains, the most striking 

 change observable in the streets of New York since 1841, is the 

 introduction of the electric telegraph, the posts of which, about 

 30 feet high and 100 yards apart, traverse Broadway, and are 

 certainly not ornamental. Occasionally, where the trees interfere, 

 the wires are made to cross the street diagonally. The success 

 ful exertions made to render this mode of communication popular, 

 and so to cheapen it as to bring the advantages of it within the 

 reach of the largest possible number of merchants, newspaper 

 editors, and private individuals, is characteristic of the country. 

 There is a general desire evinced of overcoming space, which 

 seems to inspire all their exertions for extending and improving 

 railways, lines of steam navigation, and these telegraphs. Agri 

 culturists and mercantile men in remote places, are eager to know 

 * Life of J. Blanco White, vol. ii. p. 355, and vol. iii. p. 106. 



