Litchfield enquirer., 1850-04-18
MlSCiH IT. H. A N Y.
When I Left tho Anvil.
BY ELIuu nuRRITr.

r----I.1 -s.- = (. : = - -sss " gsa I see it, you would ask me what I have to say for myself for dropping the hammer and taking up, the quill, as q lmember of your profession. will be honest now, and tell you the whole story. I was transported from the anvil to tbe editors chair by the genius of machinery. Don't smile, friends, it was even so. l had stood and looked for hours on those Ethoughtle>s iron intellects, those iron fin gered, sober. supple automatons, trs they caughtnp bale of cotton, and twirled it iAsthe tNinkling of an eye, into a whil- |lpooEoI whizzihg shrcds, and laid it at my feet in folds. of snow-white cloth, ready for the use of our most voluptous antipo: des. They were wonderful things, those looms and spind!es but they could not spin thoughts there was no attribute of Divinity in them, and I admired them, nothing more.-They were excessively curious, but could estimate the whole compass of their doings and destiny in finger power; 50 l came away and left them spinning--cotton. -. ...... One day as l was turning my anvil be- heath hot iron, and busy with the thought, that there was much inte:lectu- al philosophy in my hummer as in any of engineIy agoing Ill modern times, when most unearthly screaming pierced my ears l stepped to the door, and there i was, the great Iron Horse. Yes, he had come. looking for all the world like the great Dragon we read of in Scripture, harnessed to halfa living world and just landed on the earth, where he stood bray ing in surprise and indignation at the base uses to which h. had been turn. ed. I saw the array of human beings gliding with the velocity of the wind over the iron track, and dro,es of cattle tray. cling in their stables at the rate of twen- ty miles an hour, toward their city siaug house. It was wonderful. The little busy bee winged machinery of the cotton factory dwindled into insigniti. canoe bcforeit. Monstrous beast of pas. sage and burden! it devourcd the inter- vcning distance, and welded the cities to. gelher But for its furnace heart and iron sinews, it was nothing but q beast, an enormous aggregation ot-horse'pow- CT. And 1 went back to the forge with unimpaired reverence for the intellectual philosophy of my hammer.
 Passing along t.Ie street one afternoon 1 heard nois2 in an old building, as of some one putting pair of bellows. So without more ado l stepped in, and there in corner of 8 room, 1 saw the chef d. euyrc of all the machinery that has been invented since the birth of Tubal Cain. In its construction it was as simple and unassuming as cheese press. It went with lever-- with a lever, longer, stronr. CT than that with which Archimedes promised to lift the world.
 1t is q printing press,' said boy standing by the ink trough, with cue. less tulban of brown paper on his head. A printing press! quericd musingy to myself. "A printing press? what do you print?a 1 asked. P!int?' said the boy staring at me. doubtfully, 'why. we print thoughts Print thoughts l 1 slowly repeated after him and we stood looking for a moment at each other in mutu,.l admiration; he in the absence of I an idea, an in pursuit of one. But l looked at him the hardest, and he left another ink mark on his forehead, from a pathetic motion of his left hand, to quick en his apprehension of my meaning.
 'Why. yes,' he reiterated, in tone of forced confidence, as if passing an idea, winch, though having heen current a hundred years, might still Dc counterfeit, for all he could show on the spot. 'we print thoughts to be sure.' Bat my boy,' l asked in honest soberness. 'what are thoughts, and Cow can you get hold of them to print them 2 Thoughts are what come out of peoples minds,' he re. piled. 'Get hold of them, indeed !? Why minds ain't nothing you can get hold of. nor thoughts either. All the minds that ever thought. and all the thoughts that minds ever. made. wouldn't make a ball as big as your fist. Minds they say aie just like air; you can't see them they don't make any noise, nor Lave any color; they don't weigh any thing. Bill Deepcut the sexton. says a man weighs just as much when his mind is gone ont of him as he did before. No, sir, all the minds that ever lived wouldn' weigh an ounce troy
 linen how do you print thoughts:' ] asked. If pirds are thin air, and thoughts are thinner still. aud make no noise, and have no substance, shade, oi color. ana are like the winds, and more than tue winds, are anywhere in e mo ment; sometimes in heaven. and some times on earth, and in the waters under the earth ; how can you get hold of them; ; how can you see them wben caught, or show them to others
 Ezekiel's eyes grew luminous with a