The pilot and transcript. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1840-1841, 1840-11-12
M 4 SO EEEAN v.

PRoGREss OF IMPRovEMENT.-Ap Edinburgh
paper, the Phoenix, embodies some Of the changes
and improvements of the last seventy years in
the fern Of a prophecy, as If il had been uttered
before the American war, Ammo Domini 1910.
The prophecy, if then published, would have
gained little crcdence. 1t is now but recapitu-
lation of familiar historical events:
ttin seven years from this time the British en-
pire shall be rent in twain (American war, in
1776) In fifteen years, men shall rise from the
earth, and fly through the air; Invention of
balloons, 17S0.J In twenty years, the French
monarchy, the oldest that ever was, and new so
dourisbing, shall come to an end virtuous
prince, Uouis XVI. 1889 not yet king, shall
in twenty three years lay down his life on the
scaffold; his wife and sister shall share the same
fate. In those days news shall travel with the
speed of the wind, and what was done at mid
day shall be known at the farthest bounds of
the kingdom ere the setting of the sun; (the
telegraph, 1794.) In twenty-six years a CON
gueror shall arise (Bonaparte) who shall water
his horses in the Nile, the Jordan, the Tagus,
and the Borysthenes This conqueror shall re
store the chair of st. Peter, and throw down
what he had restored; (dethroncment of Plus
VIII Finally, he whom the world could not
contain, shall die captive, on the rocky island
(St. Helena,) neither in Europe, Asia, Africa,
nor America, but in the midst of the vast ocean
few feet of earth his empire, willow his
monument.
In those days metals shall be found which
float on the water, and burn under it, Sodium,
potassium, discovered by Sir Humphrey Davy1
Ships shall stem the stormiest ocean without
sails or oars (steam ships. Carriages shall run
without horses with the speed of the wind DO
connective engines). The ordinary speed of the
wind is thirty-five miles an hour; that of the en-
CINE in the Great Western Railway is thirty
nine. Men shall be conveyed from India to the
mighty Babylon in month; to America in ten
days; from one end of England to the other in
eight hours. Bridges shall hang by chain
over the sea, while roads shall be made under
it, (the Menai Bridge and the Thames Tunnel.
To these days of bloodshed shall succeed days
of liberty. The negro shall no longer be bought
or sold. The slave shall be set free. The
Greek shall be freed from The Turk, the Catho-
lie from the Orangeman. The very beasts IN
those days shall have laws to protect them
Those days shall be days of great light. Men
shall ploagh without horses (steam plough; they
shall spin without hands (poEer looms); they
shall calculate by wheels (Babbage's machine);
the sun shall engrave for them Oaguerreotype);
they shall write with the lightning electric
telegraph). One machine shall print in one
hour many thousand books, each Of which shall
take mar many days TO reldj man may buy
a book for penny; for penny he may send 1t
10 the ends Of the empire They shall read the
rock instead of book geology and deciPher
the history of beings which lived and died ere
man existed. In the heavens new stars shall
be discovered; some, sisters of the earth; some,
brothers Of the sunGhe planets, five in number,
discovered since the American war; and the dou-
BILE stars by Sir William HerscheD; and of all
colors of the rainbow. In those days, likewise,
they shall read the Pyramids (Young's and
Cbampollion's discoyeries). They shall find out
the mouth Of the Niger and the Magnetic Pole;
the way to every thing shall have been disco
vered--but the way TO be happy.