Canton herald. (Canton, Miss.) 1837-1839, 1838-02-21

ltiiNtihtiliNtiis NiitCU watches WITH us
by the sick bed Of some dear friend.
through the live-long solitude of night,
lenables us 10 count, in the slackeninr
pulse, natures trembling steps toward
recovery, and to administer the pre-
scrlbed remedy at the precise, perhaps
the critical moment Of its application?
BY means of u watch, punctualtv in
all his duties-which, in its perfection.
/ is one Of the incommunicable attri-
hutes of Deity-is brought, in no
mean measure, within the reach of
man. He is enabled, if he will be
guided by this half-rational machine,
creature of day as he is, to initiate
that sublime precision which leads the
earth, after circuit Of five hundred
millions Of miles, back to the sostice
at the appointed moment, without the
loss OF one second, no, not the millionth
part of second, for the ages on ages
during which it has travelled that en-
Ipyreal road. What a miracle Of art,
that a man can teach a few brass
wheels, and a little piece of elastic
steel, to out-calculate himself; to give
him rational answer to one of the
most important questions which be-
i ing travelling toward eternity can
ask! What miracle that man can
put within this little machine a spirit
that measures the flight of time with
Igreater accuracy than the unaSsistcd
intellect Of the proioundest phiIoso-
Ipher; which watches and moves when
sleep palsies alike the hand of the
maker and the mind of the contriver,
may, when the last sleep has come
over them both!
saw the other day, at Stockbridge,
the watch which was worn on the 3th
of Sep ember, 1855, by the unlortu-
nate Baron Dieskau, who received his
mortal wound on that day, near Lake
| George, at the head Of his army of
French and Indians, on the breaking
out Of the seven years war. This
watch, which marked the fierce, fever
ish moments OF the battle, us calmly
as it has done the four-scorc years
which have since elapsed, is still 90
ing; but the matchmaker and Baron
have now, for more than three-iourths
of a century, been gone where time is
mo longer counted. Frederick the
-ei1csst was snptiIrr, and vastly-rn0Te
important parsonage of the sam0war.
His watch was carried away from
Potsdom by Napoleon, who, on his
rock in mid-ocean, was won't to pom
der on the hours Of alternate disaster
and triumph, which filled up the life Of
his great fellow-destroycr, and had
been equally counted on its dial-plate.
The courtlers used to say that the
watch stopped of its own accord,
when Frederick died. Short-sightcd
adulation! for if it stopped at his
death, as if time was no longer worth
measuring, 1t was soon put in motion,
and went on as if nothing had hap
pencd. Portable watches were pro-
baby introduced into England in the
time of Shakespeare; and he puts one
into the hand of his fantastic jester,
as the text of his morality. In truth,
| if we wished to borrow from the arts
solemn monition of the vanity Of
human things, the clock might well
give it to US. How often does 1t not
occur to the traveller in Europe, as
he hears the hour told from some an
cient steeple-that iron tongue in the
tower of yonder old cathedral, I'M
changed itself, has had a voice for
every change in the fortune OF ma
tons! 1t has chimed monarchs to
their thrones and knelled them to
their tombs; and, from its watch-tower
in the clouds, has, with the same SON
orous and impartial stoicism, measured
out their little hour of sorrow and glad
ness to coronation and funeral, abdlca-
ton and accession, revolution and res
toration;victory ,tumult, and fre-and,
with like faithfuness, while lspeak, the
little monitor by my side warns me
back from my depression, and bids me
beware lest / devote too much OF my
brief hour even to its own commend
ation."
i TIE FUTURE FATE OF AMEmcA.--A
i thousand years hence, perhaps IN less
4 America may be what Europe now 49,
The innocence of her character, tha'
won the hearts of all nations N hel
favor, may sound like a romance; and
her inimtable virtue. as if it had never
been. The ruins OF that liberty loI