THE TECHNOLOGIST. [July 1, 1865. 



532 THE PROGRESS OF 



power of communication with us, is not a thought that has ever been 

 welcome to men. They have rather gone to the opposite extreme, and 

 assuming as certain that from all the regions of the universe telegrams 

 are ever proceeding to this earth, have only busied themselves with 

 inquiring in what language the signals are sent, and how they may be 

 deciphered. Take as an example the world-wide faith in astrology. 

 We speak of it as an extinct science ; yet, let but an eclipse of the sun 

 happen, or a comet visit the evening sky, and in a moment we are all 

 astrologers. In vain do you tell the gazers on such spectacles, that a 

 solar eclipse is only the moon acting for the time as a candle- 

 extinguisher to the sun, and give them bits of smoked glass to look 

 through, and draw diagrams on the blackboard to explain it all. They 

 listen composedly, with blackened noses, and seem convinced, but in 

 their secret hearts they are saying, " what though you can see it through 

 a glass darkly and draw it on a blackboard, does that show that it has 

 no moral significance ? You can draw a gallows or a guillotine, or 

 write the Ten Commandments on a blackboard, but does that deprive 

 them of meaning ? " And so with the comet. No man will believe, 

 you do not yourselves believe, that the splendid stranger is hurrying 

 through the sky solely on a momentous errand of his own. No ! he is 

 plainly signalling with that flashing sword of his, something of impor- 

 tance to men. " A good vintage-year," say some ; " a warm winter," 

 think others ; " a star-making, a sun burning done," guess the wise ; 

 — something at all events that, if we could make it out, would be found 

 of huge concern to us. 



Nay, what is astrology to wonder at, when you recognise the fact that 

 there are men, otherwise shrewd and sober-minded, who believe and 

 teach that disembodied spirits in the invisible world spend part of their 

 leisure in learning Mr. Morse's dot-and-dash alphabet, and are at all 

 times haunting about houses, like Edgar Poe's raven — 

 Tappping, gently rapping, 

 Tapping at your chamber door, 

 seeking permission to rap on your table, and to reveal to you secrets of 

 the world of spirits, which seem in general, when revealed, not worth 

 the learning ! This is the very madness of telegraphy. I refer to it 

 as proving the insatiable desire which man has to place himself in com- 

 munication with every other intelligence in the Universe, a far higher 

 form of telegraphic instinct than that which actuates the lower animals, 

 and a proof, in spite of all its aberrations, of his greatness. 



This feeling was far stronger in the elder races than it is in us. We 

 are impatient of the symbolism which they cherished. We grope in 

 the dark, and miss or mock at the meaning, where all was light and 

 brightness to them. The symbolism of the Hebrews alone is clear to 

 us, for the thing signified has been revealed as well as the sign. 

 The Star in the East was a telegraphic signal which the Chaldean Magi 

 knew how to interpret, and did not fail to obey ; and from the day that 



