Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1847-05-07

shelteT, WHeH NhtI ohJ ClolhlhH was The
skins, and their only food The flesh of ami.
mails, and the spontaneous productions Of ma.
ture. They were unable to procure better
because they were ignorant. But as civili-
zation advanced, as they became more wise,
that wisdom was manifested by the erection
of houses and 10 the cultivation Of tho soil A..
And now behold the contrast! Where
was once the impenetrable wilderness, now
waves the golden harvest! Where was once
the deep shade Of unbroken forest, now stands
the splendid city, with its noble dwellings,
its halls of science, its crowded streets and
its busy wharfs. Where once no sound broke
upon the gloomy solitude of nature but the
dreary moaning Of the wind, the bowls Of
savage beasts and the yells of savage men,
can now be heard the trampling Of busy feet,
the clanking of machinery, tho hum of bust
ness and the song Of pleasure. Every age
has added some new improvement to the past.
Every generation has contributed its expert.
ence and its observation to the sum of wis
dom already acquired. Past ages have been
occupied in the intervals Of war, by the cree
ton of magnificent cities, gorgeous palaces,
splendid temples, mighty pyramids, lofty
towers, tremendous Notifications, together
with engines for war and instruments of death.
But it remains for the present age to exhibit
the most glorious and triumphant achieve
ments Of enlightened intellect. Ours is, in
deed, an age of wonder, an age in which
truth is stranger than felton," an age in
which the widest conceptions Of fancy are
surpassed by the brilliant reality Of truth,
an age in which the most ex%travagant pic
lures Of romantic fiction are moro than real.
lied by the sublime achievements of philo-
sophy. In their eagerncss for the marvellous
and strange, mon have imagined many ex-
travagant and wonderful things; but it has
mover entered into their minds TO conceive.
until science exhibited tho fact, that ships
without oars or sails could be made TO stem
contrary winds and waves, and walk the
waters like a thing of life, ''or that boats,
without any visible cause, should maize swift
progress against the rapid current of the
river-that horses could be made OF iron, with
hearts Of fire and sinews Of steel, whose speed
would outs,rip the wind, and whose strength
could never be measured-that the lightning
Of heaven could be tanned and made TO toll in
the service Of man. Yet these and a thou
sand other things equally strange are every
day facts to the people Of this age. On eve
ry lake and sea and ocean, steamships tide
in stately grandeur, sc%orning alike the oppo-
sition Of the tempest and the tide; but bear
ing right on ward in their course, they dis
tribute the of the world. On eve
ry river steamboats, ply their courses, laden
with the comforts end the luxuries Of life
And where nature has failed 10 supply rivers,
railroads have been conslruc ted, on which
long trains Of cars, laden with passengers or
freight, and drawn by powerful locomotives,
are continually passing with almost incredi-
BILE speed. In our country all the principal
cities are being connected by a chain of elec.
photographs, s~wift-winged messengers of
intelligence, which annihilate space and bring
cities, that are hundreds of miles apart, into
whispering distance. The application of the
power of steam, and the infinite perfection TO
which machinery of every kind has arrived,
has destroyed the drudgery of labor and rem
dered it comparatively light and pleasant
All over the civilized world may be heard the
whistling Of steam. the clanking of machine
ry, and " the eternal din Of looms and spin
dies Iron sinews and iron fingers are every
where toiling with incredible rapidity and
uniiring industry in the service of enlighten-
ed man. Almost every stream, from the mur.
muring brook to the majestic river, is turned
aside from its course TO perform some labor
for its master. Who shall say, then, in view
of all this, that the acquisition of knowledge
is not of the utmost Importance And in
view Of the achievements Of the past, who
will presume to limit the possible attainments
Of the future? Who will dare 10 say to en-
lightened thought, "Thus far shall thou 90,
but no farther" and here shall thy tTiumphs
eeasel When we take into consideration the
increasing facilities for acquiring knowledge
when we look around and behold The world
full of printing presses, bright engines of i'm
mortality, scattering intelligence broadcast
over creation, and handing down to p~osteriry
the accumulated wisdom of all past ages
when we see the colleges, academies and
schools that are fast sPringing into existence,
and the growing interest that is daily mani.
tested in the subject of Education, who will
say that an Isaac Newton, a DR.. franklin, a
Robert Fulton may not yet arise, who shall
discover some new beauty, or develop some
new principle in science that will eclipse all
that has gone before it, and diminish to in.
significance all that has yet been discovered !
But | stop not here. Knowledge has a no.
/ H. ls.--