Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1858-08-13

livered by Mr.. Everett, 90 the OCCASION Oh
the Inauguration Of the Dudley Observatory,
a. Albany, more than year ago, is quite ap-
,ropriate at the present time. 10 enumerat
ing the achievements of science, be said:
"Such is language, the representative OF
thoupbt Dwell upon it, pray you, mo
ment longer; it is great mystery of our be-
inc By the use of a few written or printed
Inca on paper, so like each other, that, in Ian
euage with which We are familiar witness
n Malay or Japanese manuscript-there
seems scarce any difference between them;
this unseen, intangible, mysterious inertia!
essence, compared with which perfume. d
sound, a lunar rainbow is gross and mate
rial, expresses itself to the eye; by the GEL
tie impulse. the soft vibrations, which the
lips imrart to the elastic air, it expresses IT.
self to the ear. To give the spoken word
duration, translate it into written charac-
ters-.o give the written sign vital empha-
sis, translate it into vocal speech. BY one
divine art, the dead letter, charged with a
living meaning, sounds through echoing
halls, and wins or storms its way to sympa-
thetic hearts; by another, the 6eeting wave
marvellous permanence, and become imper,
ishable gems of thought, whose lustre no
lapse of time can obscure; while, by the
union Of both, this incomprehensible being,
the mind, gently wooed from the vestal
chambers of our Utmost nature, comes forth
like bride adorned for her lordlv spouse,
the word; clad in the rich Vesture of CONVEX
sation, of argument, of eloquence, of poetry,
CT song; to walk with him she busy or the
secluded paths Of life; to instruc, ard de,
light the living generations; ethereal essen,
ces a. they are. to outlive columns Of brass
and pyramids of granite; and to descend in
eternal youth the uneudlng highways of the
ages.
Does it seem much that the skill Of man
has in these latter days c"ntrived the means
of communicating intelligence slmos. with
the rapidity of thou yht, across the expanse
of continents and beneath the depth Of oceans,
BY the electric wirei That a message des-
patched from Boston at midday, will 80 far
out-travel the sun as to reach ST Louis an
hour before be arrives at that meridian p
1t is much, and we contemplate with just
amazement the wonderful apparatus, which,
when laid down, as sooner or later it will
perhaps be, 80 as to connect the three CONT
neuts, may, by possibility. send the begin.
ming of such q sentence as | am now pro-
nouncing around the terraqueous globe and
return it to the lips of the speaker, before be
has completed its utterance. But aDaz-
ing apparatus is but another form of Ian
guage; it transmits intelligence only a. it
transmits words. II is like speech, like the
pen, like the press, ano:ber piece of machine.
~ by which language is conveyed from place
to place The really wonderful thing is Ian
guage itself, by which thought is made sen
sible aud communicated from mind to mind,
not only in the great living congregation of
the civilized world for the time being, tu.
through the vast general assembly of the
ages; by which We are able at this moment,
not only 10 listen to all the great utterances
which express the thoughts and emotions Of
the present day throughout the world, but to
soar with Milton to the green fields Of Para
disc in the morning Of creation; to descend
with Dante, to tho depths OF penal woe; to
listen to the tbunders of Tully and Demos
thenese, al d. by the golden chain Of etoDolo-
~. trace the affinity and descent of nations
back, through the labyrinth of the past, al
most to the cradle of the race.
| hold in my hand portion Of the identi-
cal electrical cable, given me by my friend,
MIR. Peabody, which is now april %, 1857. }
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
Messrs. Glass & Co., of London, for the At
lantic Telegraph Company, to connect st.
Johns, Newfoundland, with Valentia, 1r.
land, distance Of sixteen hundred and for
ty nautical, or nineteen hundred statute
miles" Does it seem all but incredible to
you that Intelligence should travel for two
thousand miles along these slender copper
wires, far down n the all but fathomless At
lsntic, never before penetrated by aught per-
tanning to humanity, save when some foun-
dering vessel has plunged with her hapless
company to the eternal silence and darkness
of the abyss2 Does it seem, | say, all but a
miracle Of art, that the thoughts of living
uer-tbe thoughts that we think up here
on the earth's surface in the cheerful light
of day--about the markets, the exchanges,
and the scascns, and the elections, and the
treaties, ard the wars, and all the fond moth
ings of daily life, should cothe themselves
with elemental sparks, ard shoot with fiery
speed in moment, in the tw!nkilng OF an
eye, from hemisphere to hemisphere. faT
down among the uncouth monsters that wal
low in the neither seas, along the wreck-par-
ed floor, through the oozy dungeons Of the
rayless deep-that the last intelligence Of the
crops, whose dancing tassels will, in fcw
montbs, be coGuettins with the west wind
on these boundess prairies should 90 fash
ing along the Shiny decks Of old sunken gal
Icons. 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, orce as warm az ours, burst as the
eternal gulf closed ard roared over them,
centuries sgo1 Behold another phenomenon
Of surety not less surprsing-au intellec
tual electric telegraph | may so csll it
not less marvellous The little volume
which hold in ny hand contains the two
immortal poems Of Homer, those world-re-
nowned strains, which one of the imperial
minds Of our race. not far from thirty cen.
turtles ago, poured forth in the delighted ears
of heroic Greece, while the softest down of
youth was upon the cheek Of its young ma
tionality--the glowing golden leeepds-that
sovereign wrath of Achilles, which
shall burn unquenchaby,
Until the eternal doom shall be-
the parting of Hector and Audrcmach "A
scene to which the sad experience of three
&