Aiding and working hand in hand with those other genii of progress,
the inventors of the printing press and of the telegraph, the
telephone, and the electric railway, of the modern system of textile
manufactures, of iron and steel making, of the mowing machine and the
harvester, they have compressed into two centuries the progress of a
millennium, destitute of their aid. Every step taken under their
stimulus, and with their help, is a step toward a higher life for all,
intellectually and morally as well as physically; every advance in the
improvement of their work is a gain to every man, woman, and child;
every improvement of the steam engine is a help to the whole world.
This progress makes the day of the extinction of the system now
grinding the populations of the earth into the ground, the day of the
abolition of armies and the restoration to the people of that freedom
which characterized the times of the patriarchs, and of the
restoration of the rights of the citizen to his own time and strength
and producing power, perceptibly nearer.
When this final revolution shall have been accomplished, and when all
the world has settled down to the steady and undisturbed work of
production by daily and regular labor, aided by the genii of steam, of
electricity, of all nature, combined for good, the results of the
intellectual activity of the inventors of the steam engine will be
fully seen.
Pages:
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137