Hillsdale Whig standard. (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1846-1851, 1850-10-15
THE AGE WE LIVE IN.

Ii has, says the Yankee Blade, beon often
said that this is fast age. Verify, it needs
no ghost TO tell us that. Everything is rush
ed now upon the locomotive principle Even
q race horse speed no longer sltistss; nothing
'sh, ut Of a hi igh pressure engine velocity will
answe'. What was once a like, hurry,
is now considered snll progress, and men
turn away from lazy, dragging railway lines
that travel only 30 miles all hour, with per-
feet disgust. A man who can content him
self ~ travel al all in q stage coach, is con-
sidered Il miracle of pat o lce--c phenomenon
more inexplicable than tho dogged impertura-
bility Of JOB. The whole human family has
caught the steam-Inania, and are kept CON
stanlIy on the jump Every day the pace is
Increasing, TIL Il has become too irightful for
'old folks TO live. They are III the back
ground by the heter- -sketer neck or nothing
steeple chase II the rising generation, and
fnd themselves perfectly bewildcred by the
hurry scnrry win which scenes and events
| sweep by.
'Go ahead put it through hurry up
the cierksl ars the mottos of the times No
matter how well or iIl-substantially or fim-
sy, d work is done, if you only push along and
keep moving. A building which % years
ago no architect would have dreamed Of ercc-
ting in less than SIX months, must now be
rushed up IN as many weeks; railroad which
none out moon struck engineer would have
expected to construct in less than five or six
years, must now be completed IN two; book,
which once would have required years OF
brain work for its composition, is now dashed
oil at u dozen sittings. la short all things
which can be made 10 go It, are whizzing
on the lightning principle, and, from the
high flyer Oh the Cambridge race course, to
the stupendous hoating palaces that dart up
aud down our rivers, arc soampering at u
2,l0 speed
1t is true that fast built buildings every now
and then tumble oown and crush the inmates.
and that fast steamers are constantly bursting
up and blowing thousands of passengers to
immortal smash. But 'vot of itP as Sam
Weller says. This is ago-ahead age. and il
is preposterous TO suppose that millions of
human beings are to be kept crawling along
at a snairs pace OH life's thoroughfare only
that few hundreds may travel in safety II
is the age OF improvement, too, and as a co
temporary says, we are bound to keep the
great engine of human civilization at racing
speed, even If we sit Oh the safety valve to
prevent the steam FROM escaping There is
no wholng, holding in, or halting on any Of
the lightning lines uf our day. Men are born
now III hurry grow up. get married, have
children, and die IN a hurfy--and when bur
led, are dragged out of thor graves by rosu-
rectionlsts, in a hurry. almost before the
breath is fairly out of them.
Even in education the same fast principle
Is adopted Every where tho steam press
ure is appIicd--svery thing is done per sal
fUh Young men are taught TO ge; to their
journeys end by short cuts. with hop skip
nd MI IN tha - 81,
pid nature, which can produce nothing great
except by slow and tedious processes of
growth and assimilation. Years are no lon
ger wasted in acquiring single language or
mastering a solitary branch of science A
bold, dashing. sweep .all-before- you style is
the fashion, and the citadels OF learning are
carried on by coup dc main. To day the
student is down in the bowels of the earth
with. the geoogist; Tomorrow he is roaring
through the stellar spaces with the astrono
mer. This week you find him encrcled by
glasses, jars, and blow pipes, the next, the
chemical gases are exchanged for the fogs OF
metaphyslc, or fog logic. One month he is
cramming with Greek, Latin. French, Ger
man. and latin; another he is galloping like
a fast race horse over the vast folds of NOR
al philosophy, political economy. poetry and
romance. The literature of a country is ex-
hausted in day, he devotes a cigar or two
to the writers of Spain, knocks off the ashes.
and calls for the literature of Portugal -
Great discoveries. too, are made in science
with fash Of thought miracles of invention
achieved in moment of finsplration-and the
probability is, that
"Modern philosophy, anon,
Will, at the rate she's rushing on,
Yoke lightning to hcr railroad car,
And, posting like shooting star, ..
Swift as n solar radiation,
Ride the grand circuit of creation