Show FREAKS OF THE PEN extract from grahams magazine do not consider me as sneering at the ambition of man to outdo his liis fellows to surpass all previous knowledge to wrest nature from herself to fulfill fulfil hla hia purposes it is of the eternal law of progress man can n m more stop and be contented than the worlds which are arc revolving in space can rest and shine on each age makes a giants stride onward the past is strewn with theories toppled down and with systems exploded the monuments of philosophy the labor of ages are the marks now fur the childs finger of scorn the voyage of columbus is now the tile work of a week work did I 1 say his hia toilsome and desolate path palli over the waters i is now the ilo lin lyday ramble of all nations thought itself leaps a continent in a second and by means mearis of cipher ipher is communicated d to minds thousands of miles distant putting the speed of steam the glory of an age just gone to shame accomplishing its purpose even while the sonorous steam whist whistle leis is but giving ivina its note of departure the press in in a night performs the labor of a year in in multiplying printed thought and a commonwealth a nation is shaken in the time requisite formerly to ink the rollers for franklins heavy edition who will say that man himself shall not yet be shot into the air like a rocket and diverge at pleasure to any point of the compass in defiance of the tile ca prices of air currents that if lie he can now snatch from the sun a likeness of himself in in an instant of time he shall not one day look the sun itself in the face with unblinking eyes take his observations from the hom horn of some remote planet and return to earth to record his discoveries philosophy you will say but how much is philosophy herself learning daily how much of her previous knowledge is shown daily to have been worthless the chemist the geologist the astronomer torture nature continually for her ber secrets but the provident mother i is s chary ary it is but by a step at a time that her chi children en are allowed to enter into her mysteries lest iest the full blaze of her lier awful truths should suddenly strike them blind |