The fork, the knife, the graver, the spade, they are merely
steel fingers, iron hands, accumulating and prolonging the
energy of those members. The rudder which the hand holds, it is
in effect that hand itself, enlarged, and shielded from the wash
of the waves. The telescope, with its wondrous space-penetrating
power, the microscope, with its clear and searching lens,
in which seems almost an image of Omniscience, are yet only
adjutants and servitors to the eye, that more marvelous
instrument which no hand can fashion. The soul of man, invisible
itself, controls the eye. It creates the telescope, to be its
assistant. The locomotive steam-engine, with its connected
trains of cars, whose tread is like an earthquake traversing
the surface, whose rush outruns in noise and power the plunge
of the cataract--the soul has created that as a servant to the
body, to move this on its errands, and to carry its burdens.
The steamship flashing through night and storm, trampling the
riotous waves beneath it, and drowning the strife and uproar
of the winds, by its more measured and peremptory stroke, is
a similar instrument sent forth on the seas. Each began in a
thought. Each was born of the soul. And that which produced them
has the power to work with them, for any effects.--RICHARD
S. STORRS.
(1951)