The native American., 1838-01-20


} every change in the fortune Of nations! 1t ha
chimed nionarchs to their thrones, and knelle
, them to their tombs; and, from its watch-towe
1 in the clouds, has, with the same sOnorous ant
Impartial stoicsm, measured out their little hou
o sorrow and gladness to coronation and funeral
i abdicaton and accession, revolution and restOra
ton; victory, tumult and fret and, with like
faithfulness, while speak, the little monitor BY
my side warns me back from my depression, anG
bids me beware lest devote too much of my
brief hour, even to its own commentator. Lei
me follow the silent monition, sustained, perhaps
1 by the mpatience Of the audience, and hasten to
the last topic of my address,"
i Our last extract closes the address. Bright
and grand as are its anticipatons of future i'm
provement none can deny them to be rational.
And it is difficult to perceive how any mechanic
can hear, or read, the concluding paragraph, with
out conscious increase of that self-respect and
that real elevation of character, with which the
whole address tends to inspire him.
SO numerous are the inventions and discove-
ries that have been made in every department, and
to such perfection have many arts been carried,
that we may, perhaps, be inclined to think that,
in the arts, the surface of the globe, after all
the brilliant discoveries in navigation in the last
three centuries, there is nothing left to find out.
Though it is probable that, in particular things,
no further progress can be made, land even this
would not affirm, with any confidence yet SO far
from considering invention as exhausted, or art at
stand believe there never was moment when
greater improvements were to be expected: and
this for the very reason that so much has already
been dOne,--that truth, in its nature, is at once
bOundless and creative,-and that every existing
art invention, and discovery is but an instrument
of further improvement Even when any parti-
cular art or machine seems to have reached the
highest attainable point of excellence, nothing is
more likely than that it will, by some wholly un-
expected discovery or improvement, be greatly
advanced; or that, by accidental natural associa-
tion, it will lead to some other very important i'm
provement in branch Of art wholly dissimilar
Or finally, that will be superseded by something
quite different, but producing the same result.
Take, as an example, the art Of printing. The
simple process Of printing with moveable types,
and press moved by hand, does not seem, in
the lapse of four hundred years, to have under
gone any very material improvement; but the in
PRODUCTION of solid plates, and the application Of
artificial power to the press, are improvements
wholly disconnected, in their nature, from the
art of printing, and yet adding intellectually to its
Iefficacy and operative power. In a word, the
products of the creations of rational mind,
working with intelligent and diversified energy,
i in thousand directions; bounding from the
Material TO the moral world, and back from specu-
jlatiOn TO life; producing the most wonderful eff
fects on moral and social relations by material
means, and again, in an improved political and
moral condition, finding insnuments and encour-
agement for new Improvements in mechanical
art In this mighty action and reaction, we are
continually borne on TO results the most surprs-
ing. Physical and moral causes and effects pro-
duce moral and physical effects and causes, and eve
Try thing discovered tends to the discovery of some
thing yet iunknown. Ii rarely, perhaps never,
happens that any discovery Or invention is wholly
Originate as rarely, that il is final. AS some por-
ton of its elements lay in previously existing
ideas, SO it will awaken new conceptions in the
inventive mind The most novel mechanical
contrivance contains within itself much that was
known before; and the most seemingly perfect in
venton--if we may Judge the future by the past
admits of further improvements. For this reason,
the more that is known, discovered and contrived,
the ampler the materials out of which new dis
coyeries, inventions, and improvements, may be
i lexpected.
i - Perfect as the steam engine seems, it is a
i general persuasion that we are in the rudiments
i Of its economical uses. The prodigious advan-
Ices made in the arts of locomotion, teach nothing
more clearly, than the probability that they will
be rendered vastly more efficient. The circula-
ton of ideas by means Of the press is probably
destined to undergo great enlargement. Anayti-
cal chemistry has, within the last thirty years,
acquired instruments which enable the philoso-
pher to unlock mysteries of nature before uncon-
ceiyed of. Machinery Of all kinds, and for every
purpose, is daily simpliied and rendered more
efficient. Improved manipulations are introduced
into all the arts and each and all of these changes
operate as efficient creative causes of further in
vention and discovery. Besides all that may
be hoped for by the diligent and ingenious use
of the materials for improvement afforded by the
present state of the arts, the progress of science
teaches us to believe that principles, elements and
powers are in existence and operation around us,
Of which we have very imperfect knowledge,
perhaps no knowledge whatever. Commencing
with the mariners compass in the middle ages, a
series of discoveries has been made connected
with magnetism, electricity, galvanism, the pole
rty Of light, and the electromagnetic pheno-
mena which are occupying SO much attention at
the present day, all of which are more or less ap-
i plicable to the useful arts, and which may well
produce the conviction that, if in some respects
we are at the meridian, we are in other respects
IL - fba daxuu ofo ocionce In short. nll art. aS