Democratic standard. [volume] (Georgetown, Brown County, Ohio) 1837-1850, 1840-08-27
THE AGE OF WONDERS:
OR, THE PROPHET OF ITO.

Let US suppose ourselves carried back
seventy years in the stream of time, and to
live again, the youthful subjects of the
young King George III. Lei us likewise
imagine shat in those days the divene spi-
rit of prophecy had come upon US, un-
yelling to our sights the events of the fu-
ture. In seven years from this time the
British empire shall be rent in twain
lAmerican war in 1776.) In fifteen years
men shall rise from tho earth and fly
through the air Invention Of balloons in
l7S0) In twenty years the French
monarchy, the oldest that ever was, and
now so aourishing, shall come TO an end.
A vlrtuous prince (Louis XVI, 1893
not yet king, shall in twenty-three years
lay down his life on the scafoId: his wife
and sister shall share the same fate. In
those same days news shall travel with
the speed ofthe wind, and what was done
at midday shall be known at the farthest
bounds Of the kingdom before the setting
of the sun (the telegraph, lSO4) III
twenty-six years conqueror shall rise
Bonaparte,) who shall water his horses
in the Nile, the Jordan, the Tagus and
the Borythenes. This conqueror shall
restore the chair of St. Peter, and throw
down what he had restored (dethronement
of Plus viz Finally, he whom the world
could not contain, shall die captive on
Il rocky island neither in Europe, Asia,
Africa, nor America, but in the midst Of
the vast ocean: few feet of earth his
empire, awillow his monument. In those
Gays metals shall be found which float ON
the water and burn under il (sodium and
potassium, discovered by Sir Humphrey
Davy.) Ships shall stem the stormiest
ocean without sails or oars (sieam ships.)
Carriages shall run without horses, with
the speed of the wind locomotive en-.
gines. The ordinary speed OF the wind
is thtty-fve miles an hour. that of the
engines on the Great Western Railway
is thirty-nine) Men shall be conveyed
from India to the mighty Babylon in a
month; from America in ten days; from
one end Of England TO the other in eight
hours. Bridges shall hang by chain
over tho sea, while roads shall be made
under it Ohe Mensi Bridge and the
Thames Tunnel) The very beasts in
those days shall have laws to protect
them. Those days shall be days of great
light. Men shall plough without horses
(steam- plough) they shall spin without
hands (power.lOom; y they shall calculate
by wheels (Babbage's machine y the sun
shall engrave for them (the Daguerro-
type;) they shall write with the lightning
(electgic telegraph.) One machine shall |
print in one hour many thousand books,
each OF which shall take a man many days
TO read: man may buy book for
penny; for penny he may send il to the
ends of the empire. They shall read the |
rocks instead Of book (geology;) and |
deciphet the history of beings which liy-
ed and died ere man existed. In the
heavens new stars shall be discovered:
some, sisters Of the earth; some. broth.
ers Of the sun (the planets, FIVE in num-
Der, discovered since the American war;
and the double stars by Sir William Her
schel;) and Of all the colors Of the rain
bow. In those days, likewise, they shall
read the pyramids (YOung's and Cham. i
PolliOn's dscoveries,) They shall find
out the mouth OF the Niger and the Mag
nehc Poles the way to every thing shall |
have been discovered but the way to be |
haPPy'-Phenir (Edin6mgk aeIpsPaper.)