Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1856-05-22
Too Fast,

4VV dSCs
The great mechanical impulses of the age of
which most OF US are SO proud, are a mere pas
sing fever half speculative. half childish People
will discover at last that royal roads to ANYTHING
can no more be laid in iron than thew can in
dust: and there are, in fact, no royal roads to
anywhere worth going to that if there were.
it would that instant cease to be worth going
to- mean, SO far as the things to be obtained
are in any way estimable in terms of price. For
there are two classes of precious things in the
world those that God gives US for nothing
sun, air and life (both mortal life and immor-
tai and the secondarily precious things which
he gives us for price these secondariy pre-
cious things, worldly wine and milk, can only
be bought for definite money they never can
be cheapened. No cheating or bargaining will
ever get single thing out of natures "estab-
lishment" at halfprice. Do we want to be
strong? we must work To be hungry? We
must starve. To be happy? we must be kind.
To be wise ? we must look and think. No
changing of place at hundred miles an hour,
nor making of stuffs thousand yards min
ute, will make US one whit stronger or happier,
OR wiser. There was always more in the world
than men could see, walked they ever so slow.
iy they will see it no better by going fast. And
they will at last, and soon too find out that
their grand inventions fer conquering Gas they
think) space and time do, in reality, conquer
nothing, for space and time are in their own es-
sence unconquerable, and besides did not want
any conquering, they wanted using. A fool
always wants to shorten space and time, a wise
man wants to lengthen both. A fool wants to
kill space and kill time, wise man first to gain
them and then to animate them. Your rail-
road, when you come to undo rstand it, is only
a device for making the world smaller, and as
for being able to talk from place to place that
is indeed well and convenient but suppose you
have originally nothing to say. We shall be
obliged at last to confess what we should long
ago have known, that the really precious things
are thought and sight, not space il does
bullet no good to go fast, and nan, if he be
truly man, no harm to go slow, for his glory
is not at all i'll going, but in being. We'll
but railroads and telegraphs arc SO useful for
knowledge to savage nations"
Yes, if you have any to give them. If you
know nothing but railroads, and can commune
cate nothing bpt aqueous vapor and gunpowder
what then? But if you have any other thing
than those to give, then the railroad is of use
is, what the other thing may be- Is it religion
believe that if we had really wanted to COM
municate that, We could have done it in less
than 800 years without steam. Most of the
good religious communication that remember
has been done on foot, and it cannot be easily
done faster than at foot-pace. Is it science
But what science-of motion, meat and mcd-
cine! Well when you have moved your saw
age, and dressed your savage, fed him with
white bread, and shown him how to set limb
what next! Follow out that question. Sup
pose every object overcome give your savage
every advantage of civilization to the full sup
pose that you have put the Red Indian in tight
shoes taught the Chinese how to make Wedg-
woods ware and to paint it with colours that
will rub off, and persuaded all Hindoo women
that it is more pious to torment their husbands
into graves than to burn themselves at their
burial-what next? Gradually thinking on
from point to point, We shall come to perceive
that all true happiness and nobleness are near
us, and yet neglected by u.s. and that till we have
learned how to be happy and noble We have
not much to tell even to Red Indians The de-
lights of horse-racing and hunting, of assemblies
in the night instead of the day, Of costly wcari-
some music, of costly and burdensome dress, of
chagrined contention for place or power or
wealth, or the eyes of the multitude, and all
the endless occupation without purpose, and
ideness without rest, Of our vulgar world, arc
not, it seems to me, enjoyments we need be
ambitious to communicate. And all real and
wholesome enjoyments possible to man have
been just as possible to him since first he was
made of earth as they are now, and they arc
possible to him chiefly in peace. To watch the
corn grow and the blossom set, to draw hard
breath over ploughshare or spade, to read, to
think, to love, to hope to pray-these are the
things to make man happy; they have always
had the power Of doing these they never mM
have power to do more. The worlds proseri-
ty or adversely depends upon our knowing and
teaching these few things, but upon iron or
glass, or electricity, or steam, in nowise.
LOOK ABorr Yor.-How many persons there
H., >loJ H., l. r.