The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1882-11-09
tions and to extract money from the


To the minds of such men as can
rise above the mere mural utilities
which scientific inventions bring,
the analogies which prove the i'm
mortality of the soul in its independ-
ence of the ever wasting and ever
supplied body are as startled as they
are numerous. Science is doing that
which speculative theology can
never do; it is proving the power of
man as finite creative agent, and
as such his durability in another, al
though not radically different status.
in the hereafter. That which has
the largest human capacity for
creation must necessarily be
deathless, for it is in alliance
with the infinite dictatorship.
and although an inferior part, still
continuous part of the boundless
power. The inventions have follow
ed the law of receptivity and con-
tinuity, and In exact proportion to
/ the wants of man. Examples are
found in the printing press, railways
and steamers, and in the various
uses to which electricity has been
practically applied, although it may
be that the latter, if pushed to an
absurd extreme, may have BOONE
rangic action. The prophecies of
science are so numerous that it is
not going too far to say the sun of
the twentieth century will see dis
| lance nearly annihilated between
America and Europe, and q trip
from Portland, Maine, to San Fran
cisco, incredibly brief to a man of
to-day, who shall then live in the
fast era. Neither will be considered
as journey at all. DIR. Siemens,
European savant, has already an
nounced the doom of the steam
boiler and engine, and by the COM
bined use of coal gas aud electricity
man will be happy. Gas is to wholly
displace the coal range for culinary
purposes and play the part of the
poor mans candle in lighting his
house, while electricity is to illu-
inmate all public places, and
the more pretentious mansions.
The electric fluid is to drive
the engines of railroads and
steamers and factories. There is to
be no more steam, no more smoke.
London will soon, then, lose her
dense fog and coal-begrimed look !;
Pittsburg will wash her face and
put on new apparel; so will Chicago,
Cincinnati and st. Louis, while New
York, but little spoiled by smoke,
will be bright and beautiful as a
fresh and happy bride. 1t follows
that the optician will suffer, for
smoke and cinders are prolific
sources of ophthalmia. In this very
clean condition of things there will
be less need of soap, and some
of the manufacturers will have
to turn their attention to other
branches of business. A graft
flying reflection to the small boy, if
he ever reflects at all, will be his es-
cape from the daily scrubbing of his
mother, and the school-teacher's
ferule for black hands and a dirty
face in manufacturing cities. DR..
Siemens has not spread before the
public 1.-THE of the advantages of
freedom from steam and smoke, vet
his prophecy, backed by statistical
argument, is enough to show that
a sort of millennium is not far
distant. One thing he does show
pretty cOnclusively, and that is the
economic advantages of electricity
over coal and steam IN the rapid
propulsion of engines. Once more
to revert seriously to the use of
science i'll its inventive phase. Such
atheists as ascribe everything to the
operations of matter will be in utter
dismay as progress develops the ex
istence of laws yet wrapped in mys-
terry, and which the great lawgiver
allows me to use for the benefit of
mankind. Nor is this all. Science
is opening up the heavens so that
finity can understand the laws which
guide the suns and planets in their
eternal rounds. Thus scientific de-
velopments conspire to furnish ire.
sistible analogies of future state in
demonstrating the complete mastery
of mind over matter.