390

Benefits to be derived from Steam.

[Book IV.

food;—and undergoing privations and sufferings to obtain it, from whichthe lowest animals are exempt 1 Assuredly not. Had such been hisdesign, he would not have created them with faculties expressly adaptedfor nobler pursuits.

It is the glory of modern Science, that it calls into legitimate useboth the physical and mental powers of man. It rewards him with nu-merous f'orces derived from inanimate nature, and instructs him in theapplication of them, to all, or nearly all, the purposes of life ; and even-tually it will require from him no greater amount of physical toil, thanwhat conduces to the full development of all the energies of his com-pound nature. It is destined to awaken that mass of intellect which hashitherto lain dormant, and been all but buried in the laboring classes;and to bring it into active exercise for the benefit of the whole. And foraught we know, the “ new earth,” spoken of in the scriptures, may referto that state of society, when Science has thus relieved man from all inju-rious labor—when he will walk erect upon the earth and subdue it,rather by his intellect than by the sweat of his brow—when the curse ofignorance will be removed, and with it the tremendous punishment thathas ever attended it. Then men will no longer enter in shoals into a newstate of existence in another world, as utterly ignorant of the wonders ofCreative wisdom in this, as if they had never been in it, and had not pos-sessed faculties expressly adapted to study and enjoy them.

There is no truth in the observation of some people, that all discoveriesof importance are already made ; on the contrary, the era of scientificresearch and the application of Science to the arts may be considered asbut commenced. The works of creation will forever furnish materials forthe exercise of the most refined intellects, and will reward their laborswith a perpetual succession of new discoveries. The progress which hasbeen made in investigating the laws that govern the aqueous, atmospheri-cal, mineral and vegetable parts of creation, is but a prelude to what isyet to be done—it is but the Clearing of the threshold preparatory to theportals of the temple of Science being thrown open to the world at large.There is no profession however matured, no art however advanced, thatis not capable of further improvement; or that, so far as we can teil, willnot always be capable of it. If an art be carried to the utmost perfectionit is capable of in one age, discoveries in others will in time be made, bymeans of which it will be still further advanced ; for every improvementin one has an elfect, more or less direct, on every other.

The benefits already derived from steam, then, are but as a drop tothe ocean when compared with those that posterity will realize; for ifsuch great things have been accomplished by it in one Century, what maynot be expected in another % and another'! It has been calculated thattwo hundred men, with machinery moved by steam, now manufacture asmuch cotton as would require twenty millions of persons without ma-chines; that is, one man by the application of inorganic motive agents cannow produce the same amount of work that formerly required one hun-dred thousand men. The annual product of machinery in Great Britain,a mere spot on the earth, would require the physical energies of one halfthe inhabitants of the globe, or four hundred millions of men : and thevarious applications of steam in different parts of the world now producean amount of useful labor, which if performed by manual strength wouldrequire the incessant exertions of every human being. Hence this greatamount of labor is so much gained, since it is the result of inorganizedforces, and consequently contributes so much to the sum of human happi-ness. Now if such results have been brought about so quickly and by