The Carolina Spartan. [volume] (Spartanburg, S.C.) 1852-1896, 1857-10-08

mology, trace the affinity and descent Of
nations back, through the labyrinth of the
past, almost to the cradle of the race.
hold in my hand portion OF the ideu.
ticsl electrical cable given me by my friend
Mr.. Peabody, which is now in progress OF
manufacture, to connect America with Eu.
rope. read upon it the following words:
"A part Of the submarine electric telegraph
cable, manufactured by Messfs. Glass d Co..
of London, for the Atlantic Telegraph Com
pany, t. connect st. Johns, Newfoundland,
with Valencia, Ireland, distance Of sixteen
hundred and forty nautical, or nineteen
hundred statute miles" Does it seem nil
6n: incredib!s TO you that intelligence
should travel for two thousand miles, along
those slender copper wires, far down in the
all but fithomiess Atlantic, never before
penetrated by aught pertaining to humani.
ty, save whom some laundering vessel has
plunged with her hapless company 10 the
eternal silence and darkness of the abyssl
Does 1t seem, say, all but miracle of art,
that the thoughts Of living men--the
thoughts that we think up here on the
earth's surface in the cheerful light of day.
about the markets, and The exchanges. and
the seasons, and the elections, and the trea.
ties, and the wars, and all the fond noihinps
OF daily life, should cloiLe themselves with
elemental sparks, and shoot with fiery speed
IN moment, in the twinkiing Of an eve,
from hemisphere to hemisphere, far down
among the uncouth monsters ,ha. wallow
IN The neither seas, along the wreck.psved
floor, through the oozy dungeons of the
rayiess deep; that the last intelligence OF
the crops, whose dancing tassels vii in a few
months be coquelling with the west wind
on these boundiess prairies, should 90
flashing along the Shiny decks of old sunk
en- gaiIeons, which have been rotting for
ages; that messages of friendship and love
from warm living bosoms should burn over
the cold green bones of men and women,
whose hearts, once as warm as ours, burs,
as the eternal sulis closed and roared over
them, centuries agol Beheld another phe
nomenon OF surety not less surprising
an intellectual electrical telegraph-if |
may SO call it-not less marvellous. The
little volume which hold in my hand con.
ta'ns the two immortal poems of Homer,
those world-renowned strains which one of
the imperal minds Of our race, no, Ear from
thirty centuries ago, poured forth in the de-
lighted ears of heroic Greece. while the
soitost down of youth was upon the cheek
oil its young nationalty-those glowing
golden iegends-that sovereign wrath of
Achilles, which
shall burn uuquenchabiy,
Until the eternal doom shall be
The parting of Hector and Andromache-a
scene 10 which the sad experience of three
thousand years could not add one image of
tenderness and sorrow; the threats Of Jupi
ter to the awe.struck gods, while every peak
OF Olympus was ablnze with his ieaping
thunders; The piteous supplications of aged
Priam, kissing the hand and bathing with
his tears the feet of the cruel chieftain, who
had dragged the torn body of his noble son
three times round the llian walls; the wea
ry and sorrowful warnings Of Ulysses, which
every subsequent age of mankind has re-
traced with deight-these all, like the Gun.
ningy imprisoned airs OF musical box
breathe TO us IN one perennial strain Of
melody from within the covers OF this small
volume. BY the simple agency of twenty
four little marks, stamped on the written or
the printed page, the immortal legend has
flashed down 10 us through the vicissitudes
oi empires and eras-across the vast ex
panse of enlightened and benigh,ed periods
OF history-from region TO region: from his
own rocky isiet in the -Egeau 10 shores un.
known, undreamed OF, ty hm-heneath
the overwhelming billows OF three thousand
years, where peoples whole have sunk, and
IL now binds together, by the golden wires
OF intellect and taste, the minds of Europe
and America, at this meridian OF their re
lnement, with the mind OF every intervening
age of literary culture, back 10 the cradle OF
infant Greece. And while, at our places Of
education, we diligently investigate the
wonderful properties of matter developed
IN the phenomena OF the physical world,
shall we not, my friends, deem portion Of
our time and attention well bestowed upon
the miracles of the ,c0rd, written aud spo.
ken-the phenomena of language, which
lie at the foundation Of all our intellectual
improvement, Of all our literature and sci
ence; in a word, of all rational commuuica.
ton between man and man"
smooth, the most gallant of men, was
the other day contemplating 40 Let"
written IN large letters, on bill in the win.
dow OF a house in - Square. At the
very same moment the lady OF the mansion.
sparkling widow, and sparkling dauoh-
ter, appeared behind the notice. 'Whicnr'
inquired Smooth, pointing to the words,
and politely taking oil his hat To tho ladies.
The effect was irresistible. They retrested
at once from their truly accidental and nc
cldeniaIIy true position To enjoy hearty
laugh out OF the gentleman's sight.