The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1856-12-26
WHAT NEXTl
We clip the following from the New York
Sun, of a recent dale.

We clip the following from the New York
Sun, of recent date:
What next! was the exclamation of friend,
on reading The intelligence brought by the
last mail from Europe, that the capital Of the
Transatlantic Submarine Telegraph CON-
Pany had been all subscribed, and that the
projectors confidently expect to place Europe
and America in electric communication BY the
4th Of July, 1857. Well may one who re-
members when steamboating was but an ex-
pertinent; when crossing the Atlantic by steam
power was ridiculed rs chimerical idea;
when men who talked Of propelling the larg.
est ships against wind and tide, and Of max
ing roads on land on which passengers would
be carried swifter thar n bird flies, were re-
garded as dreamers whose heads Were filed
with impracticable fancies, when telegraphng
was not even dreamed OF, and news passed
between the old and new worlds ut the rate
OF about four trips year-well NAV such a
one exclaim, in view Of present facts, "What
NextT
They are not very old who remember back
beyond the age Of ocean steamers, railroads,
telegraphs, steam presses, and of nearly all
the wonderful "fast" machines and economi-
cal inventions which date their origin in the
present century. What host Of discoveries /!
from the spinning jenny to the sewing ma
chine; from the taking Of portraits almost
instantly in the sunlight, to the communities
ton Of thought with the speed of the light
ning's flash
But what next! Mind has not reached the
limits of its powers. Man has not won his
last triumph over earth and ocean, space and
time. His ambition is not satisfied; il is but
stimulated to ioftier conceptions, to grander
enterprises, By each new success. The secrets
Of Nature he has rs yet, but partially explor-
ed; its laws are still bot imperfectly under
stood by him. Through ages to come, the
work of discovery will 20 on. New wonders
in creation will be revealed to him; and though
still acquiring greater power over material
things and greater knowledge of the works Of
the Infinite, he can never reach a point be-
yond which there is nothing to be discovered;
nothing more 10 be done. .....
May we not indulge the speculation in
volved in the question, "Shall mans discove-
ries and t-iumphs in the material world result
in an entire revolution in his moral charac-
teri" Shall his deeper researches in the Book
Of Nature bring him into closer communica-
ton with its infinite and oil wise Author!
Generations Of men pass away, but the
fruits of mind remain. The knowledge ac--
quired is perpetuated. Principles Of truth,
once enunciated, become the basis of future
effort. It is thus that civilization advances;
that science enarges its domain; and that
men acquire new views of life, and Of its du.
ties. May We not hope, then, that the supe-
rior enlightenment and the wonderful tri-
umphs Of this age are but the evidences of
mans more rapid progress towards the con-
summation of that often prophesied and
browning glory--the union Of the whole race
in the sentiment and reality Of common
brotherhood, acknowledging q common
Father.