Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1874-08-27

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which we stand and labor. il
less liable to produce disease.
The advantage that culture
has been to the scientific world
is infinite, for all improvements
all inventions, all discoveries
and all that we see standing ac-
complishcd are but the materi-
al results Of thoughts once gen.
Grated in the minds of great
men. The invention Of the
mariners compass by F'lavia de
Melfi in 1902 was but a pro-
duct Of his cultivated mind, the
value Of which may be estima-
ted from the consideration that
before the use Of the compass,
mariners seldom trusted them
selves out Of sight Of land; they
were unable to make long and
distantvoYages, as they had no
means Of finding their way back,
but after this discovery they
were enabled to find their way
where all is trackless, to con-
duct their vessels through the
mighty ocean out Of sight Of
land, and to prosecute those
discoveries and perform those
gallant deeds which have immor-
talized the names Of Nelson,
Parry, Cook, La Perouse, Sir
Francis Drake, Vancouver,
Franklin and Columbus. It
was the the advantage Of the
compass and commercial inter-
course enabled Columbus to dis
cover the continent of America,
and plant the whole Of the sci
entific race upon its rich shores.
BY it outlets have been made for
old and densely populated ma
tions to empty their starving
millions in lands flowing with
milk and honey. The inven-
tion Of the printing press was
but an effect Of which culture
was the cause, the advantage Of
which can be estimated by
g!ancing at the time when kings
could not have a primer, and
EOw the poorest serf can have
volumns, countries that were
once strangers to each other are
now made acquainted by a dali
ly correspondence. 1t has laid
open and explained to the world
all the hidden mysteries that
have thus far been revealed, by
it the world has grown in sci
ence and literature from a mere
pigmy to huge giant. Yea,
it is the very means by which
the world has become enlight-l
.ened. And by continued cul-
ture we see that machinery is
being made to perform what has
formerly been the toll Of human
hands to an extent that aston
ishes the most sanguine, with a
degree Of power to which no
number Of human arms are E.
quail, and with such precision
and eXactnesS as TO almost sug-
gest the notion of reason and
intelligence in the machines
themselves. Every natural a.
gent is put unrelentingly to the
task. The winds work, the wa
ters work, the elasticity of met
al works, gravity is solicited into
a thousand new forms of ac-
tion, levers are multiplied upon
levers, wheels revolye on the
peripheries Of other wheels, the
saw and the plane are tortured
into an accommodation of new
uses, and last Of all, with mimi
table power and whirlwind
sound comes the potent agency
Of steam. In comparison with |
the past what centuries Of inn
provement has this single agent
comprised in the short compass
of fifty years. Everywhere
practicable, every where eff ]
cient, it has an arm a thousand
times stronger than that Of Her
cules, and to which human in
genuity is capable of fitting a
thousand times as many hands
as belonged to Briarius. Steam
is found in triumphant opera
tion on thetseas, and under the
influence Of its strong propul-
sion the gallant ship
against the wind, against the tide,
Still steadies the upright keel"
1t is Oh the river, and the
boatman may repose upon his
oars; it is in the highway, and
exerts itself along the course
of land conveyance; it is at the
bottom of mines, Il thousand
feet below the earth's surface; 1
it is in the mill and the work
shops of the trade. 1t rows, it
pumps, it excayates, it carries,
it draws, it lifts, it hammers, it
spins, it weaves, it prints, and
if seems to saw toman. esDecially Il