The emigrant aid journal of Minnesota. [volume] (Nininger City, Minn. Terr. [i.e. Minn.]) 1856-1858, 1858-01-13

ergy for thousands of feet under ground, While thu
structure and rig of sailing vessels have brought then
to a closer approximation to steam, the genius OF ou
c~ountryman, Maury, by his wind and current charts
which are the result Of long and multiplied observation
and careful deduction, is materially shortening Their
track over the ocean.
The power of mathematical analysis and calculation.
as attained in our day, is seen in the designation by LIZ
Verrier Of the place of a new planet, unseen as yet by
mortal eyes while the mammoth telescope of Hersche
gives sublime confirmation of the prediction. This, anG
the still greater instrument of Lord Ross, has extended
our knowledge Of the nebular portion OF the universe
The telescope of Ross has proven the moon to be with
out inhabitants, while the numerous glasses, which sweeE
the sky, from observatories in every portion of Christ
endom, are still adding to the number of asteroids which
form q portion Of our planetary system, and extending
meteorological lore. All these are the fair fruits Of
that inductive or experimental system Of philosophizine
which was inaugurated by Lord Bacon, and which,
followed up with such brilliant results at the close Of
the last century by the philosophers of the continent,
has ripened, in this age, and in great part in our own
country, into 4 fruitage Of unprecedented richness and
exuberance.
The diffusion and growth of commerce within the
present century has not been less remarkable. Only a
quarter of a century ago, the intercourse between this
country and Europe was by sailing vessels, and was
attended by the evils of hardness and irregularity, and
was of comparatively limited results. at this time,
almost every considerable portion of the earth which
affords a market for commerce is tied to the other by
lines of swift and commodious steamers, defying alike
the wind and the wave, and bearing with admirable dis
patch, and regularity, and safety, their teeming cargoes
of the rare and valuable products of distant lands, or
those Of agriculture and the arts, with multitudes of
intelligent and stirring adventures, intent on spreading
civilization to every portion Of the earth's habitable
surface.
1t is within the brief period which l have mentioned,
that the Cunard and Collins lines commenced their trips
NJ L s-.-- AlA
nication has been established between England, through
the Mediterranean to Egypt, and through the Red Sea
and the Arabian to India that a line of ocean steamers
plies between London and Australia, and from Panama
to Valparaiso, and that two lines of steamers pass weekly
to and fro from New York to the 1sthmus, and from the
1sthmus to San Francisco. Within that time the great
commercial port of Bremen has also been constantly
extending, and bringing to a regular and quicker COM
munication, the connections with her vast shipping with
South America, California and Australia. No part of
the world has been left unexplored, and even in the
hitherto deemed impenetrable regions of frost, our coun-
tryman Kane has found a stretch of three thousand
miles of open sea, whose waves, tossed by the violence
of the elements forever break against shores of perpetual
ice.
What, indeed, was the condition of the refined nations
of antiquity, in comparison with that of the moderns in
the single respect of physical comforts True, the
principal personages enjoyed what was then regarded as
luxury but in many respects, how mean and sorroy
VIVIAN "PIC"A 'AO cfICuuot VI AAHSS COuupdICu WIFI WIFI
many a private citizen is able to enjoy in these days,
without bestowing a thought upon the high progress in
civilization of which it is the index. Where was the
universal diffusion of silk and cotton fabrics which now
furnish so large a portion of the clothing of tue human
family? Even as late as Queen Elizabeth, silk stockings
for ladies first came into use, those previously worn
having been Of wooden cloth, cut to the shape, and
sewed together and the extensive production and con-
sumption of our great southern staple was a consequence
OF the spinning jenny Of Hargraves, the spinning frame
OF Arkwright, and the cotton gin of Whitney-all
invented since the middle Of the last century.
Glass, though in some degree known in the time of
ouroSaviour, was yet of great rudeness in comparison
with the Respondent crystal productions of our day,
which are in general domestic use, and for ornamental
purposes. The potato and Indian corn were first in.
PRODUCED to the knowledge Of Europeans with the dis
covery Of America, as we'll as the luxury of tobacco
coffee and tea have cone into general use only since the
Cape of Good Hope was doubled ~ the Portuguese
and sugar extracted from cane has been 10 general use
less than two centuries and half. Superior physical
development may. have been the consequence Of the
ancient simplicity Of life and manners ; but priyation
aud restitution were probably quite as great in proper
ton to numbers.
What were the means of knowledge enjoyed by an
tlqulty IN comparison with those at our command ?
Teaching was oral in the schools of the philosophers.
their knowledge of the world being SO restricted,
their basis for generalizing was extremely narrow. II Len
their mechanical helps we're few and insignificant. A
and Lewenboeck had not vet opened I'M.
by microscopic research, that wondrous world of organic
life, invisible to the naked eye nor had Calico, by the
Of the telescope, and it's direction to the 6eav-
demonstrated the falseness of the Ptolemaic theory
of our planetary system, which recognised the earth as
the centre, and established the truth Of that of Copper
nicas, which all succeeding observations have confirmed.
No wonder that the ancient philosophers, when they left
the domain Of geometry and pnre mathematics, became
dreamers.
In painting and music the moderns have gone i'm.
beyond them. Nor was paper yet invented.
The Egyptian papyrus, or waxen tablets and the STYLUS.
formed the means Of recording events, and the mighty
power of the press had not appeared, to move with its
mute eloquence the popular mind.
The time has gone by, perhaps forever, for the erec-
lion Of those great structures, whose ruins have come
Town to US from antiquity, sad monuments of the waste
human effort. We shall no more build pyramids,
md hanging gardens, nor rear again those glorious min.
and %cathedrals which it required the unintermitted
abors Of centuries to complete. We shall be sparine
lenceforth in the erection Of columns and triumphal
Yet while the demands of our republican in.
OF science, and of religion, call into being
architectural structures which shall rival those of the
and Iaeseus, and many a city, of little less
than Ttebes apd Babylon, will yet, on this
continent lift its proud turrets to heaven.
Vast il. the field open for the exercise of art in its
higher DEPARTMENTS. and the grand eyents Of onr history