Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1848-05-25
THE FUTURE DESTINY OF MAN.

What a proof is Steam of the high destiny that
awaits our species The most fervid imagina.
ton cannot realize the importance of those dis
coveries in science and the arts, Of which it is
merely the forerunner; the first in that new cat
alogue of motive agents, that are ordained to
change the condition Of men, and to regenerate
the earth: for all that is yet done is but as the
twilight that ushers in the orb of day. Hther-
to man has been comparatively asleep, or in
state resembling i--insensible OF the rich inher-
itance which the Creator has placed at his dis
posal in the elastic fluids, and Of their adapta-
ton to inapart motion to every species ofmeehan-
ism. How few persons are aware that the grand
invention OF imparting motion to piston by
steam and other elastic fluids, is the pivot on
which the chief affairs Of the world is destined
hereafter to turn? And the time is not distant
when by means of it, the latent energy of the
gasses, or other properties of inert matter, will
supersede, in a great degree, the drudgery Of
rnan---will perform nearly all the labor which
the bone and sinews of our species have hither-
to been doomed to accomplish. There are per-
sons, however, with minds biased, by the eter-
nal bondage in which the mass of our race has
already been held, who will starte at the idea of
the whole becoming an intelligent and highly
intellectual body. They cannot conceive how
the affairs of life are to be continued--the exc
cution of innumerabe works which the consti-
tuition of society requires should be performed,
if these helots should become free. But can
they, can any one, seriously believe that the all
wise and benevolent Creator could possibly have
intended that the highest class Of beings which
he has placed on this planet--the only one ca
pable of approaching His works, realizing cor
rect ideas of His attributes--that the great por-
ton of these should pass through life in inces-
sanity toiling for mere food, and undergoing pri-
vations and sufierings to obtain it from which
the lowest animals are exempt, Assuredly not.
Had such been His design He would not have
created them with faculties expressly adapted
for nobler pursuits.
1t is the glory of modern science that it calls
into legitimate use both the physical and mental
powers of man. 1t rewards him with numerous
forces derived from inanmate nature, and in
structs him in the application of them to all or
nearly all, the purposes of life and eventually
it will require from him no greater amount Of
physical toll than what conduces to the full de-
veopment of all the energies of his compound
nature. 1t is destined to awaken that mass of
intellect which has hitherto laid dormant, and
been all but buried in the laboring classes and
to bring it into active exercise for the benefit Of
the whole. And for aught we know, the 'nep
earth, spoken Of in the scriptures, may refer to
that state of society, when Science has thus re-
lieved man from all injurious labor---when he
will walk erect upon the earth and subdue il,
rather by his intellect than by the sweat Of his
brow-when the curse of ignorance will be re-
moved, and with it the tremendous punishment
that has ever attended it. Then men will no
longer enter in shoals into new state of exis-
tence in another world, utterly ignorant of the
wonders Of creative wisdom in this, as ifthey had
never been in it, and had not possessed faculties
expressly adapted to study and enjoy them
ElcbQnk.