Virginia advocate. [volume] (Charlottesville, Va.) 1827-1860, 1828-08-09
TRAVELLING.

.CIFrom the I" New Mirror tor Jraveliers.
Ever since the ~ ,ntion OF steam engines,
steam. boats steam Carriages Liverpool packets,
rail roads, and ether delightful facilities Tor trav
Cling. the march of the human body has kept
pace with the march of the human mind, so that
it isinow a moot poitt which gets on the faster.
If the BODY moves at the rate of fifteen miles
hour the mind advances at equal pace ana
children Of sixteen are i'll fair way to become
wiser than their grandfatners. While the grown
IN gentleman goes to Albany in twelve hours
and comes back in.forty-eight with charter in
his pocket, the aspiring schoolboy smatters a Ian
Cuage or conquers science, by the aid OF those
vast improvements and the I" niachincry' of the
mind, which have mmortalized the age. In fact
there seems to be a race between matter and mind ,
and there is 10 telling which Will come out best
in the end.
LEGISLATORS and philosophers may fattcr them
selves as they will but they have little influence
in shaping the world. The Inventors of paper
money cotton machinery, steam engines 81 steam
boats, have caused greater revolution in the
habits opinions, and morals Of mankind, than
all the systems of philosophy, aided by all the ef-
forts OF legislation. Machinery and steam engines
have had more influence on the christian world,
than Locke's metaphysics, NaPoieons code, or
Jeremy Benthans Qualifications; and we have
heard great advocate for domestic manufactures
predict the time was not far distant, when men
and women and children would be of use to
ming ienuics would become members of Congress,
and the United States be governed by a steam en-
CINE Of . hundred and twenty horse power. We
confess ourselves not quite so sanguire, but will
90 so far as to say, we believe the time may
cone when long speech will be spen out Of a
bale Of cotton by spinning jenny a President Of
the United States be made 10y a combination OF
machinery and Mynheer MaelZcl be beaten at
chess by his own automston
Without diving deeper into such speculation
or tracing the effects of these vast improvements
in the condition Of mankind, who will soon have
nothing to do but tend upon machinery, we shall
content ourselves by observing that the wonderful
facilities for locomotion furnished by modern in
geruiiy have increased the number OF travellers
to such degree, that they now constitute large
portion Of the human family. All ages and sexes
are 10 be iovnd on the wing, in perpetual EAatlon
from place to place. Little babies are seen cry
ing their way in steamboats,, whose cabins are like
so many nurscries-people who are the most com
Portable at home, are now most fond of going a
broad-the spruce shopman cxclaims a dieu l.;
Boutoue" and leaves the sbopboy 10 cheat The
town for him-tbe young belle. tiIed Of seeing s
being seen in Broadway, breaks forth in all he
rlories in n new place at five hundred miles dis
tance-bcdrid age musters its last energies 70
an expedition 10 West Point, or the Grand Ca
ual-End even the thrifty house wife of the vii a
ccs on fb,, banks Of the Hudson, who therefor
!, vs. " ali onn as piece Of the House" thinks nc
tb;, y ofrigkir,r Blow up, or break down in ina
Linz rovnoe New-York to sell pair of nit
tnns 81 hnya -, Der Of pins. We have heard
grc,t nolifica economist assert, that the me
new spent in traypl ling between new ok o. "a
bany. in the last (a snyears would 60 near 10 nair
t.I 1j the paupers d the u states III tno' Pun