The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1857-09-03
MR. EVERETT UPON LANGUAGE AND THE TELL
GRAPH

GRAPH
The following is an extract from an Grafton delv
ored by Mr.. Everett the Inauguration Of III.
Washington University at 81. Louis
Such is language, the representative Of though,
Dwell upon il, pray you, moment longer; il is p
mystery of our being. b. the Of few Written -
printed lines paper, like each other that In Ian
guages with which are NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. Maayo,
Japanese manuscript there seems scarce any. dhereno
between them; this unseen intangible mysterious uD,
essence compared with which perfume sound a NM
rainbow is gross and material expresses itsef the en-,
by the gentle impulse the soft vibrations which the H.
npart 10 the elastic air II expresses itself 10 the ear ~
Give the spoken word duration translate 1t into written
character to give the written sign vital emphasis
translate IL into vocal speech. by divine art the
dead letter. charged with living meaning sound
through echong halls and wins or storms its way to sym
pathetic hearts by another the hccting wayeeis Of h
air are chrystaiized into most marvellous pernanence
and become imperishabic gems OF thought, whose us
no lapse Of time can obscure while, by the union Of
BOTH this ncomprehensible being the mind gently woe
from the vestal chambers Of inmost nature CONES
forth like bride adorned for her lordly spouse ls
verdi clad in the rich vesnre of conversation of are
mens, OF eloquence, OF poetry, OF song to walk with
him the busy the secluded p!ahs Of life to instruct
and delight the living generations ethereal essences a
they are TO outlive columns of brass and pyramids Of
granite and descend in eternal youth the amending
highways Of the ages.
q Docs it seem much that the skill of men has n
intelligence almost with the rapidt Of thought acru
the expanse Of continents and beneath the depth q
oceans by the electric wref That message despatched
from Boston midday will far outtrave the as 10
reach ST. Louis hour before he arrives at that meridian
1t is much and we contemplate with just amazement e
wonderful apparatus which, when laid down, sooner On
later it perhaps will be, TO connect the three con
tinents may by possibility send the beginning Of SUCH
sentence am pronouncing around the eiraqueou
globe and return it the lips Of the speaker before he
had completed its utterancc. But this amazing aml
ratus is but another form of language 1t transmits In
tegcnce only it transmits words Ii Is like speech
like the PEN like the press, another piece OF machinery
by which language is conveyed from place to place The
really wonderful thing language ITSELF by which thought
is made sensible, and communicated from mind to mind
not only in the great living congregation OF the civilized
world for The time being, but through the vast general
assembly of the ages, by which are able al this mo-
nent only to listen to oil the great utteances which
express the thoughts and emotions Of the present ay
throughout the world, but to soar with Milton to the
green fields Of Paradise in the morning of creation TO
descend with Dante to the depths of penal to listen
to the thunders of Tuy and Demosthcnes, and by te
golden chain OF etynoogy trace the affinity and descent
Of nations back through the labyrinth Of the past almost
to the cradle Of the
81 hold in my hand portion of the identical electr
cal cable given me by my friend Mr.. Peabody which
move in progress of manufacture to connect America with
Europe. read upon it the following words A part
Of the submarine electric telegraph cable manufactured
by Mcssrs Glass Co., of London, for the Atlantic Tele
graph Company. to connect St. Johns, Newfoundland
with Valencia, Ireland, distance OF sixteen bundled
and forty nautical nineteen hundred statute miles
Does it all but incredible to you that intelligence
should travel for two thousand miles, alop those slender
copper wires far down in the all but fathoness Atlantic
before penetrated by aught pertaining to humanity
when laundering vessel has plunged with her
hapless company to the eternal silence and darkness
the abyss Docs it seem, say all but miracle of MT
that the thoughts Of living menthe thoughts that we
think up here the earth surface in the cheerful light
of dayabout the markets, and the exchanges, and The
seasons and the elections and the treaties and the wars
and all the fond notbings Of daily life, should clohe
themselves with elemental sparks, and shoot with fiery
speed IN moment, in the twinkling of an eye from
hemisphere to hemisphere far down among the uncouh
monsters that waow in the neither seas along the wreck
paved floor, through the ooy dungeons Of the myles
deep that the last intelligence of the crops whose dan
cling tasses will in few months be coquetng with the
west wind these bodndess prairies should go flashing
along the Shiny decks of old sunken galeons which have
been rotting for ages that messages OF friendship
and love from living bosoms should burn over the
cold green bones of and women whose hearts, once
as warm as ours burst the eternal CULTS closed and
roarcd them, centuries ago Behold another phe
Of surety not loss surprsngan intellectual
electrical telegaph--if may call t--not less
veous. The little volume which hold in my hand con-
ains the two immortal poems of Homer, those wod-e
nowned strains which Of the imperial minds Of
race not far from thirty centuries ago, poured forth
the delighted of heroic Greece, while the softes
down of youth upon the cheek Of its young nation
ality--those glowing golden legends that sovereign
wrath of Achilles, which
shall burn unquenchab,y
Until the eternal doom shall be
the parting of Hector and Andromachc of which
the SD experience Of three thousand years cuuld not add
image OF tenderness and the threats of Ju
pitcr to the awe-strck gods while every peak of Oym
pus abaze with his eaping thunders the piteors
applications of aged Priam kissing the hand and bathing
with his tears the Of the cruel cheftan who he'd
dragged the torn body of his noble three times round
the Ian walls; the weary and sorrowful warnings Of
Ulysses which every subsequent age Of mankind has
traced with delight--these all, like the cunningham
prsoned airs of musical box breathe to ,ls in per-
cnnal strain of melody from within the covers of this
small volume BY tie simple agency of twenty -four lit
tie marks stamped the written the printed page
the immortal legend has flashed down to through the
vcissitudes Of empires and the vast exan
of enlightened and benghtcd periods of history from
region to region from his rocky slet in the Eean
to shores unknown undreamcd of by him beneath the
overwhelming pillows OF three thousand years, where
peoples whole have sunk; and it binds together,
by the golden wires of intellect and TASTE the minds Of
Europe and America at this meridian Of their refine
ment with the mind Of every intervening age Of literary
culture back to the cradle Of infant Greece And while
at our places Of education diligently investigate tho
wonderful properties Of matter developed in the phenom
of the physical world shall not my friends, deem
portion Of time and attention well bestowed upon
the miracles Of the ord written and spokenthe phe
Of language which lie at the foundation OF all
our intellectual Improvement, Of all literature and
science in word Of all rational communication be-
tween and man p!
sApri %, 1867
Besides our own there Is scarcely nation ia chrsen
dom which makes color the badge of citizenship Eng
lind France jus asi-