How few there are who pause for one instant from their plodding after
the deified “Dollar,” to reflect that this present year, 1869, is the
most remarkably commemorative of any yet on the Book of Time.
It is now one hundred years since HUMBOLDT, CUVIER, the first BRUNELL,
JAMES WATT, Jr., and Sir THOMAS LAWRENCE, among the most eminent of the
world’s civilians—and NAPOLEON the First, WELLINGTON, SOULT and NEY,
among the most advanced rank of mighty military chiefs, had birth.
It is one hundred years since the elder WATT’S condensing steam engine
was invented, and that invention which brought poverty with its
production has, in these hundred years, revolutionized the globe, and
made not alone individuals, but whole nations wealthy and powerful.
No nation on the globe owes more to WATT’S steam engine than does this
of ours. Where now would Civilization be coiled up? Where now would
Science be secluded comparatively unnoticed and unknown—were it not for
that one invention?
The peoples of the world have been growing and multiplying, and where
would have been the room, or the employment for the teeming millions,
were it not for that happy thought which in 1769 became a palpable fact?
A wise Providence was over all, and the brain that worked out the idea
of the condensing steam engine was but doing its special part in the
great work of civilization and progress.
This Centenary is one which should not be allowed to pass unheeded,
especially now that we have just drawn the extremes of the earth
nearer, not alone to the ear, but to the eye itself.
* * * * *
“How fast they build houses now!” said H.; “they began that building
last week, and now they are putting in the lights.” “Yes,” answered his
friend, “and next week they will put in the liver.”