The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1876-01-01
GheGtttelIi9erter,
1876.

"Ring out the old, ring in the new"
This was efFectually done last night
Nothing could be more eiiectually DONE
But after the Carnival comes the Lent
after an outburst ot indulgence comes, or
should come, sober reflection. And GER
tainly there is a great deal that is both
interesting and profitable to enlist our
thoughts and conversation to-day. First
is the thought that We have now entered
upon the hundredth year Of American In
dependence. This hundred years is a short
span in a nations history, and still short
er in the worlds history. There are per.
sons yet living who were alive this day
one hundred years ago. All such persons
can congratulate themselves on having
witnessed stretch OF human progress
such as was never before witnessed in any
one century Of the worlds history. 1tis
by all odds the most memorable Of all the
centuries, and is only rivalled at all
by those centuries that witnessed the
invention Of printing and the dis
covery OF gunpowder. These two agen.
cies Of civilization deserve to be class
ed side by side with the application OF
electricity rs a medium for conveying in
stantaneous intelligence around the
earth, and Of steam as motive power on
land and sea, and they are the only two
agencies that can be so classed.
1t is impossible to set limits to mans
wonderful capacity for seeking out and
setting in order new discoveries. No
doubt the world will be many times as
tonished in the next hundred years when
things now concealed are brought to
light, but il is not too much to say that
it can never be astonished as it has been
in the century that dates from American
independence. We may improve upon
the present forms and methods Of
transmitting intelligence by wires, but we
can never improve on the instantaneous
fash that we already possess. We may also
improve upon the safety and comfort Of
our present system OF railroad travel,
but until friction shall be overcome and
until the centrifugal tendencies Of matter
in motion can be more efIectually coun-
teracted, We can hardly move faster upon
wheels than we do now.
And as for the progress made in meta
physics during the century past, it is
hardly less marked than the progress in
physics. Indeed the two kinds are close
ly interviewer. 1t was the discovery Of
gunpowder that broke the power OF
the feudal system. So steam and elec-
tricity have quickened and cheap
ened every species of popular in
formation. The century has been a
century of intellectual emancipation.
The whole theory Of government has
been changed in the last hundred years.
Even in Spain or France it is no longer
believed that those countries were made
for the Bourbons, nor in Italy do the
people believe in the divine right Of the
Pope to temporal power.
A great many people Of course believe
that this awakening Of the masses has
been for the worse instead Of the better.
Like that Imaginary being who on the
morning Of Creation besought the "Power
Invisible" not to cast the spell OF invoca-
tion over the chaos that reigned, SO there
are not few who believe that the human
mind in order TO be wholesomely con-
trolled should be kept as near as may be
in the primitive state. But this is not
destiny. All such persons stand in the
way Of the inevitable, and the century
that is now dawning will cast over the
world such rays Of enlightenment as will
in all probability so nearly equalize in
telligence among men that no human be-
ing will be another's slave either in body,
mind or conscience.