Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1869-07-20


what glorious chambers and splendid mansions
of light and truth and everlasting knowledge
has it not brought us! 1t he's compelled the
lightpings to wait on mortal man to go and
saw to Him. "Here we are-we, the fiery
footed messengers Of heaven, ready to plunge
through the depths of ocean, to leap over
mountains, to fly through air, and compass sea
and land to do thy bidding" So it is with
steam and its powers; With the polarization OF
light the daguerreotype; the spectrum an
alysis; and all the great human inventions
and Improvements, both ancient and modern.
So far as we know, and with the single ex-
ception OF the alphabet, all the great inYen-
tions, discoveries, and improvements that
have markell Il, progress of the human family
in its march upward aud onward, have been
first suggested by nature herself, and caught
up seemingly by chance, and when developed
they have been found to consist merely in the
application of some physical force or other
in Itself the most simple-to the practical
affairs OF life, The falling Of an apple was
clue to the laws CT gravitation. Tho absence
of single ray in the spectrum was, with its
suggestions, clue placed in tho hands of
philosophers for the first time the other day:
It has led them into the very chambers Of
light, and revealed to US fresh cause for wonder,
love. and praise, towards the author of it all.
We now begin tosuspect that gravity is not
the only universal law; that there are. other
forces, as we'll as certain material substances,
that are cosmical: that light and heat produce
effects in the stars similar to the effects they
produce here; that throughout the stellar
space they are amenable to the same laws-so
much so that a sound treatise on optics here
would hold good in the stars alsD.
We suspect that there is continuity in the
universe that certain forms of matter that
are familiar to us, and possessing the same
properties by which they are made palpable
to our senses, are present in the sun and stars.
We know there are metals in the sun, gases
in the stars. Solar iron and sidercal hydrogen,
so far as we can apply tests to them. are the
same there as they are here. Docs it not
cnnoble your mind enlarge your symPathies,
and elevate the soul, to reflect that terrestrial
substances, such as gases and metals, oxygen
and hydrogen, slvcrand copper, iron and zinc;
each one Invested with the very properties by
Which we know it here, are present in the
stars that they are known to the inhabitants
there for the same properties aud by the same
pecuIiaritics by which we distinguish them
The thought-like as when "man did eat
angels iood''-br brings us closer to things above,
and makes US disposed to cxclaim involuutarily,
as we lock alOlt in the silent hours of the night
and contemplate the stars in their glory, Of
verify "our God is their God'
Indeed, this little clue, the discovery and
study Of dark lines in the spectrum, has al
ready led us iuss labyrinths where we hear
science whispering, "Behold, and reflect how
earth, sun, stars. and planets, are bound in
kindred ties. Are they nOt-wO and they
inhajitants and aH linked together all in
glory and for enc common destiny =
When those around you are achieving such
couqucsts, and sigpaLizinS the age in which
YOU live by such glorious triurphs OF the
human intellect, are you, gentlemen, alter
having laid such foundations for knowledge
as you have been doing here. going to fiug
away study, shut your books aud your eyes to
the wonders Of creation, and live i'll ignorance
of all fresh knowledge that your contempo-
rarics in other parts of the world are gather
ing and recording for future generations
The clue which Eeachoff has placed in cur
hands is bringing US, not only to know what
the lights of heaven are made of, and to
acquaint US with its 'husbandry," but it is
promising to tell us whether this or that
celestial object may have physical conditions
analogous TO what We have here.
Having laid your educational foundations
under such happy auspices, and being about
to euter upon the great battle Of life, sitter
such training, it is your daty to assist, each
in his way, in winning those cOnquests Of mind
over matter which constitute the progress Of
the are, and make the improvements Of the
day the glory Of your own generation. What
is it but the increase and diffusion of knOWl-
edge that has given us our arts, our sciences,
our manufactures, our comforts, our luXur'cs
our civilization-in short, everything that
raises us above the savage, who, by his igno-
rance is degraded to the level of tho brute5
with which he herds. And from what did
this increase of knowledge arise but from OBJ
serving the operations and studying the laws
of nature.
The pursuit Of knowledge, ard especially
of this kind of knowledge, is the nobIest OF
all occupations that engage the energies OF
man; it ennoblcs his mind and dignifes his
nature.
Cast your eye over the world, and you will
see that the men who observe and think are
few. Why? Because we are all prone to
Incidence One Of the thinkers Of the day
tells us that can immense majority of men
always remain in middle state, neither very
foolish nor very able; neither very virtuous
nor very vicious but slumbering on in
peaceful and decent mediocrity, adopting,
without much difficulty, the current opinions
of the day, making no inquiry, exciting no
scandal, causing no wonder but just holding
themselves on level with their generation,
aud noiselessly conforming to the standard OF
morals and of knowledge common to the age
and country in which they lives y vast
majority He mears not ten, but tens OF
thousands to one.
take it for granted that every young man
that is trained up as you have been goes out
into the world with aspirations for something
higher than merely to drift down the tide OF
time with such as these.