Arizona miner., 1868-01-11
M E..
From the Coruhin Magazine for September

 The looseness of idea which is traceable in | many of our -philosophic phrases and | opinions offers curious subject for reflection ! Ilabitually, partly from mental incidence | probably. partly from inherent unscientific | carelessncss of mind. we are satisfied with | apyro0ches to an idea about, or an explanation l of, the phenomena which catch our attention with what Dr. Chalmers used to call !" the | inkling of an idea mot so much with halt an dea as with the raw materials of an idea. We are content with feeling that conception, l and probably a true conception, lurlS under the expressions we hear and repeat; and un- der cover of this inarticulate seHiimeHt (for it is usually nothing more) we absolye our selves from the exertion of analyizing the conception, embodying 1t in appropriate Ian guage, or even carrying it so far as distinct and ineXpressible notions. We use a phrase, and then fancy we have done thing-haye clucidated fact or given utterance to an idea We employ words not to express thought, nor Gas Talleyrand suggested) to conceal it; but to hide its absence and to escape its toil.
 No word has been oftener made to do duty in this way than Time. We constantly say speaking of material things-that Time destroys buildings, effaccs inscriptions, re- moves landmarks, and the like. In the same way-speaking of higher matters appertaining to men and nations, to moral and intellectual phenomena-we are accustomed to say that "Tine" obliterates impressions, cures faults, solaces grief, heals wounds, eXtinguishes ami mosities; us well as that under it's influence empires decay, people grow enlightened er- TOTS get trodden out, brute natures become humanized, and so on-that the world makes progress" in short. Now what do we mean when we speak thus; or do most of us mean anything What are the mighty and resist less agencies hidden under those four letters and embodied in, or implied by, the little word
 Sir Humphrey Davy, in those Consola- tions of Travel which worthily solaccd ''the last days of philosopher enCeavored to answer this question as regards mere physical phenomena. He analyzes the several causes which, in the course of ages, contribute and combine to produce the ruins which cover the surface of the earth, and most of which are more lovely in their decay than ever in their pristine freshness. Putting aside all results traceable to the hand of man, 10 the outrages of barbarian invaders or the greed of native epredators-eaving out of view, too. the destruction wrought from time to time by lightning, the tempest, and the earthquake--he shows that the principal among those elements of destruction, which operate slowly and surely, generation after generation, are traceable to heat and gSGritd- ton. More precisely, they may be chased under two heads, the chemical and the me chanical, usually acting in combination, and the two former much the more powerful oi the two The contraction and expansion oi the materials of which all buildings are com posed, due to changes of temperature, operat, to loosen their cohesion, especially where wood or iron enters largely into their com position; and in northern climates, wherevel water penetrates among the stones, it's pecu llarity of sudden and great expansion wher freezing renders it one of the most effective agencies of dsintegration known The raiI that falls year by year, independent of it ceaseless mechanical effect in carving ol minute fragments of all perishahle materials Is usually, and especially near cities, more O less charged with carbonic acid, the action O which upon the carbonate of lime, whiel forms so large an element in most stones. i sometimes portentously rapid, as indeed W, see every day around us. The air, again through the instrumentality of the oxygeI which IS one of its component parts, Is abou the most powerful agency of destruction fur nlshed by the whole arnory of nature i corrodes the iron by which the stones arr clamped together; it causes the gradual de cay of the timber of which the roofs of build ings are usually constructed, so that we sel dom find any traces of them in the more an cient remains which have come down to us Thus the great principle of organic life become also, in it's inevitable and eternal action. tn great principle also of decay and dissolution Then follows what we may term the uninten tional or accidental agencies of living things As soon as the walls and pediments and col umns of statue or temple have lost thei polished surface through the operation of tn chemical influences we have enumerated, tn seeds of liehens and moses and other parasit ic plants, which are constantly floating in tn atmosphere, settle in the roughnesses, grow decay, and decompose, form soil, attrac moisture, and are followed by other an, stronger plants, whose roots force their way