American Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1855-1860, 1858-08-19

ute miles" Does il seem al But ineredi-
bic to yUd that intelligence should travel
for two thousand miles, along those slender
copper wires, far down in the all hut faith !
omless Atlantic. never befors pepetratcd1
BY ahght pertaining 70 humanity. save
when some laundering vessel has plunged |
her hapless company TO the eternal silence
and darkness Of :he abyss? Does Il seem.
/ say all but miracle of art, that the
thoughts Of living men, the thoHghts that
we think up here on the esrth's surface iu
the cheerful light Of day .---about the mar
kets, the exchanges, and the seasons. and
the elections. and the treaties. and he wars
and all the f nd nothihgs Of daily life.
should clothe themselves with elemental
sparks, aud shoot with fiery speed in mo-
ment. in the twinking Of an eye. from
hemisphere to hemisphere. far down among
the uncouth monsters that walIow in the
neither seas, along the wreck paved floor,
through the oozy dungeons Of the Iayless
deep;-that the last intelligence Of the
crops, whose dancing tassels will in a few
months he, ,coquetting with the west wind
on these bOundltss prairies. should e
flashing along the Shiny decks OF old sunk
en- gullaons, 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 wo
men. whose hearts, once warm as ours.
burstas the eternal CULTS closed and roared
over. them. centuries ago? Behold phe,
nomenon Of surety not less surprising, IAN
intellectual electric telegraph. .-if may so
call it.-not less marVelous! The little
volume which / hold in my hand contains
the twc immortal poems of Homer. those
world renowned strains, which one Of the
imperial minds Of our race, not far from
thirty centuries ago, poured forth 10 the
delighted ears oil heroic Greece, while the
soffest doWn::o youth was upon the cheek
Of its young nationality sovereign
wrath Of Achilles. which
| t'--shaII burn unauenchabIy, Ai'.'
Until the etsrnal doom shall be,-''
the parting of Hector and .Andromaohe, -
scene to which the sad experience Of
three thousand years could not add one
image of tenderness and4orrow; the threats
EotJupitsp 10 the ave. struck gods, whiieev
cry peak of Olympus was ablaze with his
leapirg thunders; the piteJus supplicatlons
of aged ,Priam, kissing tie hand and bath.
ing With his tears the feet Of the cruel chief
| tain. who had dragged the torn btdy OF
his noble son three times round the llian
walls; the weary and sorrowful wapderings
OF Ulysses, which every subsequent age Of
mankind has felraced with delight, these
all. like the cunningly imprisoned airs of
a musical bog breathe to US in one peren
nial strain of melody from within the COW
ers ofthis small volume By the simple
/ agency OF tweptp. -four little marks. stamp,
! Ell on the written or tbs printed page. the
immortal legend has flashed down to us
through the vicisitudes Of empires and
ras;-scross the vast expanse of enlight.
ened ard benighted periods of history
from region to region, frvm his own rocky
islet in the Egean to shores unknown, un-
dreamed Of BY him;-beneath the over.
p whelming pillows of three thousand years
where peoples whole have sunk; and i,
now binds together. by the golden wires ol
intellect and taste, the mind Of Europe and
America, at this meridian Of their refine
msnt. with the mind Of every intervening
age of literary culture back to the cradle
Of infant Greece. Ano while at our places
of education, we diligently investigate the
the wonderful properties of matter devel.
oped in the phenomena Of the physical
world, shall we not, my friends. deem a
portion Of our time and attention we'll he
slowed upon the miracles Of word. writ,
tan and spoker--the phenomena Of Ian
grage which lie at the foundation Of al
our Intellectual improvement, otall litera-
ture and science, In word Of all ratona
communication between msn and man9