Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1875-09-17
TbeDernront 9benit.
9RATTLEBORO:
FRIDAY EVENING, SEPT. II, 1875.


n century OF bNebms
IT is just hundred years ago, this very
year, since James Watt, the cal inventor
of the practical working steam engine, per-
fected his Improvements, received from
British parliament renewal of his patent,
and introduced an engine of large capacity
into one of the great manufacturing estab-
lishments of England. Coincident, almost,
with the birth of political freedom in the
new world was the successful development
of that marvellous material power derived
from the combination of two of the simple
elements of nature, which was destined 10
exert greater and more beneficent influ-
euce upon human society than all the in
ventions and discoveries that had preceded
it. Seventy years only have elapsed since
Robert Fulton made his completely sue
cesful application of the power of steam 10
the propulsion of vessels upon navigable
waters and eleven years later the same
powerful agency was invoked for the diff
fusion of knowledge by its application TO
printing press in the Office of the London
Times. 1t is only forty-five years since the
first steam railway line in the world was
opened for regular ira file; and less than
forty years have passed away since our
own Professor Morse, born and raised here
in Massachusetts, first put the ligh;nings
of heaven into harness, and compelled
them to do errands with celebrity and ac-
curacy that astonshed the world, as by
new revelation of divine wisdom and pow
er. By means OF these two agencies, steam
and electricity, which have always existed
in nature, but which have been utilized
only within the last hundred years, all the
conditions of human society have been so
changed for the better, even within the
memories of persons now living, as TO
leave us no data for any reliable estimate
as TO the future progress of mankind in
comparison with the past. The ancient
seers and thinkers may have had some dim
perceptions of the possibilities OF the fu
ture. King Solomon, in the plentitude of
his wisdom in contrvances which was
made manifest in his stupendous temple,
might have had some spiritual insight of
grander development, and the men who
built the Pyramids and the Parthenon
seem 10 have had almost the requisite gen.
ius TO discover and apply the power of
steam. The ancient Egyptians, who with
pous care embalmed the bodies of their
deceased kindred in finest linens woven
upon hand-looms, were almost skilful
enough to spin and weave by our modern
methods and there can be little doubt
that the prophetic soul of Job had reference
10 the magnetic telegraph when he pro-
pounded the interrogatory, "Canst thou
send the lightnings that they may go? and
say unto thee Here we ere?" But in the
providence of God the "Gulness of time"
had not come, and II was reserved for
these later years TO discover and utilize
those powerful and until recently almost
dormant forces of nature, which lessen the
cares and amelorate the woes of humanity,
tighten the toll of human limbs, multiply
the comforts OF the poor as well as the rich,
and develop those intellectual faculties (by
the afforded opportunities of universal ed
ucation) which elevate, refine and strength
en-. Yet what debt of gratitude is due
from us Of the present generation TO those
earnest and patient toilers who, in the ages
past, "delved in the deep mines of knowl-
edge" and by hard labor in dingy work
shops, amid poverty and reproach, made
manifest their ideals to the senses in some
rude shape; all eliminating at last in the
civilization and refinement of this last half
of the nineteenth century. "Sublimer in
this world know nothing than peasant
saint, for such a man taketh us back TO
Nazareth" said Carlyle, in one of his brave
defences of the wronged agricultural la
hOra,S IF l,,t Sfo oil l,a
tiers whose acts have come down 10 us
through histories of the past, it seems to us,
there is no moral sublimity that can COM
pare with those more aggressive and obsti-
nate men who, in all ages, and in many
lands, have successfully wrestled with all
the forces of nature and made them the
adiuncts of human power. Men who have
not been content, as the simple recipients
of Divine benelactions in their raw condi-
tion, but have chosen 10 be fellow laborers,
and co-workers with the Supreme power,
in their improvement, increase, and still
wider diffusion. All honor TO those faith
full and diligent sons of toll, who have
taught us by slow degrees, how to fashion
from the crude materials of nature useful
and artistic forms and contrivances for the
convenience, comfort and delight of their
fellows. With the magnificent results be-
fore us, OF the century of progress, now
drawing to close, no thoughtful Amer-
can can now join in Edmund Burke's re-
greet that "the age of chivalry is gone, and
that of economists and calculators has sue
ceeded," for we have now had hundred
years experience ofthe age ofsteam, and the
contrasts are grateful to our sight, in the
improved and ever-improving condition of
human society.
This is the place. Stand STILL my steed,
Let us renew the scene,
And summon from the shadowy past,
The forms that once have been.
Away back in the dim distance we may OBJ
serve old Tubal Cain at his forge, and Ar.
chimedes, in his workshop, solving the
problems of the mechanical powers; CALI
leo in his Italian prison, and Faust with
his friends at Gutenberg, moulding their
"little inky bits of pewter and striving TO
multiply facilities for the diffusion OF
KIN owledge, bymeans OF movable typesand
the printing press Watt, studying the ex-
pansive powers of steam over his mothers
tea-kettle, ana filing iron with his own
hands; jacquard building his power
loom; and Hargreaves, Arkwright and
Crompton plodding over the construction
of the iron fingers and feet of their spin
ming 'ienneys" and "mules" which were
to save the human fingers weary and
worn" from arduous toll and perform the
labor of the most obstinate creatures
under the sun without either hay or grain,
and entirely bereft of their proyerbial pow
er TO kick our own Yankee schoolmaster,
Eli Whitney. constructing from old saw