2 the project could not possibly succeed. He formed a most elaborate calculation, according to the most precise rules, which gave the greatest satisfaction to all the scientific world of Paris. A was to represent the carriage; B the horses; C the driver; D the resistance of the air; E the friction of the earth, and F the utter impossibility of success. And A plus B, plus C, plus D, plus E, was equal to F, and therefore the project must fail. While the book was being published, however, the wager was won; but the lovers of science contented themselves with affirming that, though the project did succeed, it ought not to have succeeded. 3. An instance of a graver character may be quoted. Not long since a light-house was erected on a ledge of rocks, known as Minot's Ledge, in Boston harbor. It rested on iron pillars, which rose from strong iron piles, fixed firmly in the rocks. Science, or rather professed science, was fully satisfied that the structure was secure. There was a terrible storm in the winter; but the light-house outlived it. The keeper declared, however, that it could not stand many such gales; that the piles had started; that in a severe easterly storm the light-house would rock like a ship afloat; and that there was great danger of its overthrow. The engineer knew better than this, and came before the public with a statement proving very conclusively that the keeper's fears were groundless, and that the light-house was so constructed as to be tempest-proof. The very next spring, an easterly storm of unusual severity set in, and the strong winds blew violently, and the tide rose, and the ocean-waves rushed in and beat upon that house, and it fell. The iron stems that sustained it were snapped like reeds; and two valuable lives were lost by the catas'trophe. 4. I mention these instances, not to undervalue science, — it would be folly to attempt that; for science, when. true to its name, is true knowledge, - but to show that its name is sometimes wrongfully assumed, and that its professors, when not guided by humility, may prove but misleading counsellors. The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. After all that human wisdom can foresee, after all that human calculations can provide, something must be left to chance, something to the possibility of error, something to those contingencies which human vision may not take in. The highest science is ever the most reverent. It is in the lower ranks that we must look for those examples of dogmatism, pertinacity, and presumption, which claim to utter decisions, without appeal, which the next hour may prove to be wrong. CXCVIII. CARDINAL WOLSEY AND CROMWELL.* Wolsey. FAREWELL, a long farewell to all my greatness! But far beyond my depth; my high-blown pride Enter CROMWELL, amazedly. Why, how now, Cromwell? Cromwell. I have no power to speak, sir. At my misfortunes? Can thy spirit wonder, Crom. How does your grace? Wol. Why, well; Never so truly happy, my good Cromwell. I know myself now; and I feel within me A peace above all earthly dignities, A still and quiet conscience. The king has cured me These ruined pillars, out of pity, taken A load would sink a navy - too much honor : Too heavy for a man that hopes for heaven. Crom. I am glad, your grace has made that right use of is Thomas Cromwell, a statesman of the time of Henry the Eighth of England. Shakspeare often puts the accent in aspect on the last syllable. (Out of a fortitude of soul I feel), To endure more miseries, and greater far, Crom The heaviest and the worst Is your displeasure with the king. Crom. The next is, that Sir Thomas More is chosen Wol. That's somewhat sudden : But he's a learned man. May be continue For truth's sake, and his conscience; that his bores, Crom. That Cranmer is returned with welcome, Wol. That's news, indeed. Crom. Last, that the Lady Anne, Whom the king hath in secrecy long married, Going to chapel; and the voice is now Only about her coronation. Wol. There was the weight that pulled me down. O! Cromwell. The king has gone beyond me; all my glories In that one woman I have lost forever: No sun shall ever usher forth mine honors, Or gild again the noble troops that waited Upon my smiles. Go, get thee from me, Cromwell : I am a poor fallen man, unworthy now To be thy lord and master: seek the king; That sun, I pray, may never set! I have told him What and how true thou art: he will advance thee; (I know his noble nature), not to let Thy hopeful service perish too : Good Cromwell, Crom. O, my lord, Must I, then, leave you? Must I needs forego Wol. Cromwell, I did not think to shed a tear Out of thy honest truth to play the woman. Let's dry our eyes: and thus far hear me, Cromwell; In them the Future as the Past is given SIR E. BULWER LYTTON. CCII. WHAT LABOR HAS DONE FOR THE WEST. 1. HE, alone, who has traversed these regions, day after day, In the freshness, indeed, but in the silence and solitude of nature, almost appalled by a sense of loneliness and insignificance, amid these wonders of creative power,- can justly appreciate the efforts of man in subduing and reclaiming the prairie and the forest, and preparing them for those scenes of improvement and cultivation which cheer the eye and gladden the heart of the traveller; and, above all, of the traveller who preceded the march of civilization, and now follows it in its glorious progress. Never has human industry achieved a prouder triumph than in this conflict between nature and man. As in the ex'oduse from Eden, he has been "sent forth to till the ground;" and in the "sweat of his face" has he thus far fulfilled his mission. And a proud one it was; ay, and yet is; for, though it has done much, it has still much to do. It began at the beach of Jamestown, and the rock of Plymouth, where its first labors were broken by no sound but the surges of the Atlantic; and they will finish only when the last echo of the woodman's axe shall mingle with the surges of the Pacific. 2. Do not these miracles of enterprise resemble the fictions of an Eastern imagination, rather than the sober realities of human experience? Do they not speak to us in trumpet-tones of the value and dignity of labor? for by labor have they been wrought -persevering, unyielding, triumphant labor! There is no lesson more important to be taught to our young countrymen than that which is taught by this great characteristic feature of American history, the immense conquest which man has achieved over the world of matter that opposed his progress, and the scanty resources he brought to the work. His own exertions, and the axe and the plough, have accomplished this mighty task; always, indeed, with toil and exposure, and sometimes under circum. stances of privation and suffering before which the stoutest resolution might give away. - 3. And how would this great work, of subduing nature and preparing the forest for the residence of man, have been accom plished in the older regions of the globe, so long the theatre of human exertions? The answer describes by a single trait the marked difference between the condition of agricultural labor in the Eastern and in the Western hemisphere; between the laborer for others and the laborer for himself. He who runs may read it in the history of our whole progress, individual and national. The forest has fallen before those who established their habitations in its dark recesses dark till their toil made way for the light of Heaven to shine upon them. They labored themselves, and for themselves. No taskmaster directed their labors, and no speculator garnered the profits. And thus exertion was stimulated by the most powerful motives which can operate upon human nature-by the necessity of present subsistence, and the hope, the certainty, I should say, of future com'petence and comfort; and, therefore it is, that, upon the immense domain from Lake Erie almost to the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, a vigorous, intelligent, and enterprising people have fixed their resi dence, and by their own labor, and for their own advantage, have prepared it for all the purposes of civilized life. - a 4. And the time within which this has been done is not tho least extraordinary feature in this great national migration migration going forth to invade the forest, and to fulfil the first command of the Creator, " to replenish the earth and subdue it," and not, as in the history of human conquest, to lay waste and destroy, having before it fertile and flourishing regions, and be hind it ruin and desolation. The man yet lives who was living when almost the first tree fell before the pioneer's stroke in this magnificent region; and the man is now living who will live to see it contain one hundred millions of people. I have myself known it for half a century, and in that space- long, indeed, in the life of man, but brief in the life of communities region of the North-west, marked with its distinct boundaries upon the map of nature by the Lakes, the Mississippi, and the Ohio, has risen from infancy to manhood, from weakness to strength, from a population of a few thousands to five millions of people — of freemen, owning the soil they occupy, and which they won by their industry, and will defend by their blood. our own 5. Where, in the long annals of the human race, can you find such an augmentation of the resources and numbers of a country, gained in so short a period, and under such circumstances of trial in its progress, and of prosperity in its issue? And may we not well say, that the mighty agent which has built up this monument of productive power deserves the gratitude and he fostering care of the American people? And that agent is Labor, and our duty is to elevate it in the scale of employment; to show what it has done, and is doing, and is destined, I trust, yet to do. |