Maumee express. [volume] (Maumee City, Ohio) 1837-1838, 1837-06-10
THE PRoMErHEAN AGE.
by A pyRoLoeIsT.

'tt Ihe age OF gold was. Yea, the age oi
silver had being! But alas the form.
er in spite Of the promises of Thomas H
Benton and the eulogisers of mint drops
and yellow jackets is gone forever and
the existence of the latter would have
been,by this time problemiatcal, but for a
miserable emission Of bogus half dollars
and frost-bitten five cent pieces. Per-
haps if any thing in the nature Of Cir
culating medium could be used to desig-
nate with propriety our age and its dis
tinctive characteristics, the name of " the
age of counterfeit money" would not be
the most unapt. The age of counterfeit
money-the age when mans outside
and inside bear no relation nor resem
blance TO each other. Man-like Ro-
man actor draws brazen mask over his
physiognomy,and paints upon its bur-
nished front the character he wishes to
be considered to bear, and goes forth to
the world in all the assurance Of per-
fectly successful imitation, and rants and
roars his brief day out-passes for what
he is not--denying himself to those who
enquire after him by his real name, un-
til having finished his course he is buried
in his disguise, and the world mourns the
loss of the mask and the successful mask
er. But neither gold, nor silver, nor
brass, nor rags, whether they be coun-
terfeit or no, are to give distinctive
cognomination to the present age. Some
thing more brilliant, restless, varying and
at the same time effective, something
more universal and still, more concen-
trative, something more overwhelming
by powerfuland yet more simply useful,
something which shall denote the physi-
cal character which predominates over
without retarding the mental develope-
ments of the present age, modifying their
character and appearance. tits Fire 7!
Prometheus, who stole the vivifying prin-
ciple from the "hurler of thunderbolts," ;"
to animate the labors his impious hand,
was not more daring when he braved
the forked dlightnings Of the angry son of
Saturn. than are many of his modern
followers, who would filch the Goals from
the altar on any occasion, at the sugges-
ton of their unhallowed wills. Let this,
then, be called the Promethean age--the
age when fire is the principal agent up
on which all great and mighty achieve
ments in future depend; the actor who
has done all which has ever been done
up TO this time, and who is now labor
ing in all the great undertakings which
distinguish the present day. The geol-
ogist is a plutonist. Ask him for the
name of the grand agent for creating the
world, and he will answer Z" Fire" Ask
him what is the name of the principal in
gredient, and his answer is ready-it is
(" Fire" OF what is the interior COM.
posed Fire! The elements--what
are thcyl Thy are composed of Fire.
The angry blast that whistles round your
dwelling is but another form of that fire
which may enwrap it in the intensity of
destructive confagration, and the bab-
bling brook that enlivens the landscape
is a vein Of liq uid fire pervading the land
The chemist is Promethean. Ask him
what he deals in, and he answers Fire"
Midas turned every thing which he
touched into gold, but he into Fire. Ask
him, of what is man composed, and he
answers; "his bones are oxygen and
hydrogen--the most important elements
of combustion-and phosphorus,th the most
infammable substance in nature; his sin
ews, ligaments, flesh and skin, are i'm
pregnated and principally composed of
the two former substances. Man is
living, breathing, walking Fire. But
this is not all--his mental operations too
betoken an igneous origin. The words
of the orators of this age are lightnings,
scorching and shivering their opponents
the poet breathes forth his stanzas in
"words that burn" and the historian
scales the heavens, and scrutinzes the
sun, to find comparisons possessing
sufficient degree Of caloric to suit his
flaming ideas. The arts too have called
the sciences to their aid, and Fire stands
glowing forth as the prime minister. By
Fire, the whirring car drives with the
velocity oflightning over its iron track,
and the proud barge breasts its way over
the threatening pillows, and even now
the ponderous machinery that drives the
stately ship over the waters is kept in
motion by the decomposition and COM
bustion of'a portion of those very waves
which rattle before her heaving Prov,
or glow with phosporic Fire as she
ploughs her majestic way above them.
Truly this is an age Of fire |
~ From the Troy Budget
THE FOOT OF THE RAPIDS.
We have ever been of the opinion that
this Mace in a commercial and man.