The independent. (Harrisonburg, La.) 1853-18??, 1857-09-30
MR.. EVERETT UPON LANGUAGE AND THE
TELEGRAPH.

H.
The following is an extract from an ora
ton delivered by Mr.. Everett on the inaugu-
ration of the Washington University at St
Louis,
"Such is language, the representative Of
thought. Dwell upon it, pray you, mo-
inent longer; it is great mystery of our
being. BY the use of few written OF
printed lines on paper, so like each other
that, in languages with which we are unfa-
miliar-witness Malay or Japanese man.
usctipt-there seems scare any difference
between them this Unseen, intangible, mys-
terious mental essence, compared with which
perfume, sound, lunar rainbow is gross
and material, expresses itself to the eye; by
the gentle impulse, the soft vibrations which
the lips impart TO the elastic air it express
les itself to the ear. To give the spoken
word duration, I translate it into written
character; to give the writteil sign a vital
EMPHASIS, translate it into vocal speech.
BY one divine art, the dead letter, charged
with living meaning; sounds llrough echo
ing halls. and wins or storms its way to SYM
pathetic hearts; by another, the heeting
wavelets of the air are crystalized into a
most marvellous permanence, and become
imperishable gems Of thought, whose lustre
no lapse of time can obscure; while by the
union of both, this inconprehensibe being,
the mind, gently woed from the fes.al cham
bers of our inmost nature, comes forth like
bride adorned for her lordly spouse, the
world clad in the rich vesturc of conversa-
ton, of argument, of eloquencc, of poetry
Of song; to walk with him the busy or the
secluded paths of life; to instruct and de-
light the living ethereal essen
ces as they are, to outiye columns of brass
and pyramids of granite aud to descend in
eternal youth the unending highways of the
ages.
Does it seem much that the skill of men
has, in these latter days. contriyed the
means of communicating intelligence al
most with the rapidity Of thought across the
expanse of continents and beneath the depth
of oceans by the electric wire That a
message dispatched from Boston at midday
will so far out-travel the sun as to reach St.
Louis an hour before he arrives at that meri-
dian. 1t is much, and we contemplate with
just amazement the wonderful apparatus
whichs when laid down, as sooner or later it
perhaps will be, SO as to connect the three
continents may, by possibility, send the be-
ginning of such a sente nee as am now pro-
nouncing around the terraqueous globe and
return it to the lips of the speaker before he
had completed its utterance. But this amaz-
ing apparatus is but another form of Ian
guage; it transmits intelligence only as it
transmits words. 1t is like speech, like the
pen, like the press, another piece Of machi-
merry by which language is conveyed from
place to place. The really wonderful thing
is language itself, by which thought is made
sensible, and communicated from mind to
mind, not only in the great living congrega-
ton of the civilized world for the time being,
but through the vast general assembly Of
the ages, By which we are able at this mo-;
ment, not only to listen to all the great ut
terances which express the thoughts and
emotions of the present day throughout the
world, but to soar with Milton to the green
fields of Paradise in the morning of crea-
ton; to descend with Dante to the depths
of penal woe to listen to the thunders of
Tully and Demosthenes, and, by the golden
chain of etymology, trace the affinity and
descent of nations back through the laby-
rinth Of the past, almost to the cradle of the
race.
II hold in nv hand portion of the iden-
tical electrical! cable given me by my friend
Mr.. Peabody, which is now* in progress Of
manufacture, to connect America with Eu.
rope. l read upon it the following words
A part of the submarine electric telegraph
cable, MANUFACTURED by Messrs. Glass & Co.,
Of London, for the Atlantic Telegraph Com
pany, to connect St. Johns, Newfoundland,
with Valencia, Ireland, distance of sixteen
hundred and forty nautical, or nineteen hun
dred statute miles, Does it seem all bit in,
credible to you that intelligence should ira
vel for two thousand miles, along those slen-
der copper wires, far down in the all but
fathomless Atlantic, neve, before penetrated
by aught pertaining to humanity. save when
some foundering vessel has plunged her hap.
less company to the eternal silence and dark
ness of the abyss Does it seem, l say, all
tut a miracle Of art, that the thoughts of
living neh-the thoughts that we think up
here on the earths surface, in the cheerful
light of day-about the markets, and the
exchanges, and the seasons, and the elections,
and the treaties, and the wars, and all the
fond nothiDgs Of daily life, should clothe
themselves with elemental sparks, and shoot
with fiery speed in moment, in the twink
ling of an eye, from hemisphere to hemis-
phere, far down among the uncouth mon
sters that wallow in the neither sea, along
the wreck-pased foor, through the oozy dun
geons Of the rayless deep; that the last In
lelligence Of the crops whose dancing tas-
sells will in few months be coquetting with
the west wind of these boundless prairies.
should 60 flashing along the Shiny decks Of
Ala curGon o.lJaons which b.yo haa,, -ot.o,A