the experiment. These trustees were the Revs. W. Marsh, ter than we. How had democracy spead in England? They D.D., Leamington; W. W. Robinson, M.A., Chelsea; W. had declared they would have the charter; but had they gone Carus Wilson, M.A., Casterton Hall; and W. Wight. M.A., the way to get it. They had not sent out their teachers as John Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The sum of £5,000 was considered Wesley did. But then their teachers must be taught themnecessary for the commencement of their object, £3,000 of selves; and were the young men preparing for this? Were which had already been subscribed; the rest would no doubt they studying moral, political, scientific truth?-for all these soon be made up, "as the scheme was becoming quite a popu- must go together. What time did they rise in the morning to lar one." read and think? Did they study till late at night? To eat, drink, work, sleep, day after day, it was not worth while to live for. What were they doing to make the land of Shakspeare, and Newton, and Milton, great and glorious? Did they read, think, reflect?" Miscellany. which the Commercial copies from the records in the office of 1st Patrol District.... 2d 3d 66 4th 5th Whole 104 299 192 107 216 360 330 30 320 197 187 10 120 7th FIRE ANNIHILATOR.-Several interesting and successful experiments were exhibited on Friday last, at the London Gasworks, Vauxhall, before a numerous company of ladies and gentlemen, invited to witness the effective power of Mr. Phillips's new invention for extinguishing fires. The agent by which it is sought to accomplish the object is a mixture of gas and vapor. After several experiments on a small scale, to show the success he had attained by these means, the attention of the company was directed to compartment of a large open building, quite twenty feet high inside, which was fitted up with partitions and temporary joisting of light wood, well soaked with pitch and turpentine, and over-hung besides with rags and shavings soaked in the like manner. The torch was applied to this erection, and the flames, which ascended im- 10th mediately, at length roared with a vehemence which drove the spectators back to a distance of forty feet, and was already beyond the power of water. The inventor then brought forward one of his hand machines, and threw out a volume of vapor, which, in half a minute, entirely suppressed all flame and combustion; and to show that the vapor which now filled 18th the space was innoxious, Mr. Philips mounted into the loft, and passed and repassed through the midst of it with a lighted candle in his hand. The machine with which this effect was accomplished was rather larger than a coffee-pot, and consisted of three tin cases, one within another, and mutually communicating. There was a small quantity of water in the bottom of the machine, and in the center case was a composite cake, of the size and color of peat-containing in the middle yers in this city, at present, we stated at about 1,200, of whom of it a phial of sulphuric acid and chlorate of potash. In order to put the machine into action the phial is broken, and a gaseous vapor is generated so rapidly and in such quantity that it immediately rushes out from a lateral spout with great impetuosity. Mr. Philips explained that a machine of any size could be made according to the purpose for which it was intended, and that a company was at length formed to carry the invention into effect. The company present very cordially expressed their satisfaction with the success of the achieve ment. 66 17th 245 215 13 15 206 184 22 143 4,524 3,764 760 2,920 STATISTICS OF LAWYERS IN NEW YORK.--A few days since, we gave in the Herald some statistics of our city lawyers, showing their comparative prosperity, longevity, &c., in con trast with the mercantile classes. The whole number of law only about 500, it is estimated, are in successful and active practice. Most of the others are young men, supported by their friends and relatives, or inheritors of fortunes, and adventurers from foreign countries, as well as from different parts of the United States, who have come to Gotham to see what can be done in the way of business, speculation, politics, or marriage. The following shows the number of lawyers in practice, or on the rolls of the courts in this city and in the State, at different periods, from 1820 to 1844: 1820. 1830. 1835. 1840. 1844. PLAIN SPEAKING.-The Sheffield Independent reports some 303 448 539 742 1,045 excellent lectures, (or, as they are somewhat affectedly styled, 1,248 1,688 2,052 2,390) 3,166 orations,") delivered by Mr. Thos. Cooper, in that town. In It will be seen that about one-third of all the lawyers in the one of them the following remarks occur:-"The working State are located in this city. The total number of attorneys men did not want bloodshed; and for peace and happiness, and counsellors in the State, by the census of 1845, was 3,549 and reform, they must lay their heads together Suppose they at present it probably exceeds 3,700-of whom 1,200 are in had universal suffrage. If they had it could they keep it? They had it in France, but had not so much liberty with it as The comparative income of the three learned professions, we have. They could not hold meetings like this. Their estimated in 1846, on the basis of the census of 1845, was as press was not free, This showed that it was possible to take follows:something before its time. There was no country where men 3.549 attorneys and counsellors. . $600 00 enjoyed anything like the liberty of this country, unless the 4,399 clergymen (ascertained) 4,610 Physicians and surgeons white men of the United States; but they held three millions of slaves, and he would not acknowledge that they were bet CONTENTS. 241 244 Labor..... 250 MECHANICS IN CONGRESS.-It is said that nearly one-half of the members of the present Congress were once journeymen mechanics: If so, (says the Washington correspondent of the Charleston News, this is an interesting fact, and shows what perseverance can accomplish. These men have become great, not so much from the facilities for a common knowledge, which our system of education afford, as from a self-reliance Sketch of Hiram Power... 250 which a sense of independence confers. It has been truly said that the moment you make a man politically equal with his fellow, you give him a consciousness that he is so in all respects. THE Baltimoreans are rejoicing over the invention by a mechanic of that city of a fan which is kept in motion by clock-work running ten hours. When stationed on the top of the bedstead it will keep the sleeper cool and comfortable during sultry nights. THE mill-owners of France dislike a restriction on the hours of labor, as much as those of our own country. Numerous complaints have reached the Government that certain members of this class have violated the law limiting the hours of work. THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. PROSPECTUS FOR VOLUME SECOND. THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE is designed to be a medium for that Life of DIVINE HUMANITY, which, amidst the crimes, doubts, conflicts, of Revolution and Reaction, inspires the hope of a Social Reorganization, whereby the Ideal of Christendom may be fulfilled in a Confederacy of Commonwealths, and MAN become united in Universal Brotherhood, Among the special ends, to whose promotion the Spirit of the Age is pledged, the following may be named :I. Transitional Reforms-such as Abolition of the It has been proved that at Boulogne-sur-Mer spinners have Death Penalty, and degrading punishments, Prison Discibeen compelled to work thirteen hours and a-half during the line, Purity, Temperance, Anti-Slavery, Prevention of Pauday; and in Alsace as much as fifteen and sixteen hours. On emption, Protective Unions, Equitable Exchange and Curperism, Justice to Labor, Land Limitation, Homestead Exthe other hand, a petition from some manufacturers has been rency, Mutual Insurance, Universal Education, Peace. presented to the Minister of Commerce against the Twelve II. Organized Society-or the Combined Order of ConHours' Bill, setting forth the injury inflicted on the manufac-federated Communities, regulated and united by the Law turers by its operation, as it prevents them from competing of Series. with establishments where no such law exists. III. The One, True, Holy, Universal Church of Humanity, reconciled on earth and in heaven-glorifying their planet by consummate art—and communing with GOD in perfect Love. HANSON'S BLADE PROPELLER. We have inspected the model of a new invention for the propulsions of steam-vessels. Although the apparatus by which the propelling power is obIV. Psychology and Physiology—such views of Man, collective and individual, as are intuitively recognized, justified tained in this invention at first sight bears some resemblance to that of the Archimedean screw, yet the principle is essen- the culmination of the Natural Universe, and a living memby tradition, and confirmed by science, proving him to be tially different, being, indeed, more analogous to that of the ber of the Spiritual Universe, at once a microcosm, a heaven ordinary oar, by which nearly the whole advantage of the re- in least form, and an image of the Divine Being. sistance of the water is secured without any of the loss arising By notices of Books and Works of Art-records of Scifrom counter-resistance indidental to the ordinary screw pro-entific discoveries and Mechanical inventions-and summapulsion. As the arrangements for obtaining the patent are ries of News, especially as illustrating Reform movements not yet complete, we are of course, precluded from entering at home and abroad-the Spirit of the Age will endeavor into a more detailed explanation of the leading features of the to be a faithful mirror of human progress. invention, and can, therefore, only state a few of the principal advantages which a minute examination satisfied us it possesses. The principal advantage is the great increase of speed over paddle and screw steamers, which the blade propeller must, from the nature of its construction, ensure; this difference under equal circumstances, cannot, we think, be less than two CLINTON HALL, 129 AND 131 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORK, EDITOR WILLIAM HENRY CHANNING. FOWLERS & WELLS, PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY: TERMS-$2,00 A YEAR: INVARIABLY IN ADVANCE. All communications and remittances for The Spirit of the Age should be directed to Messrs. Fowlers & Wells, Clinton Hall, 129 and 131 Nassau-street, N. Y. LOCAL The first half of the sixth thousand of this universal genera- BOSTON, Bela Marsh. lization of Nature and her laws, including a description of the PHILADELPHIA, J. P. Fraser. spiritual worlds (the whole having been dictated in the clair- BALTIMORE, Wm. Taylor & Co. voyant state) has just been bound up. For sale by Lyon & WASHINGTON, John Hitz. Fishbough, New York; B. B. Mussey & Co., and Bela Marsh, CINCINNATI, J. W. Ryland. Boston; J. A. & U. P. James, Cincinnati; and by booksellers generally. Price reduced to $2, with the usual discount to the trade. Twelve copies to clubs and others who forward with their orders $16 to Lyon & Fishbough, care of J. S. Redfield, Clinton Hall, N. Y. CHARLES LANE. AGENTS. BUFFALO, T. S. Hawks. LONDON. JOHN CHAPMAN, 142 Strand. GEO. W. WOOD, PRINTER, 15 SPRUCE STREET, N. Y. THE VOL. II. WM. H. CHANNING, EDITOR. LABOR. NEW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 1850. BY MISS PHOEBE CAREY. What a hushed and solemn stillness Did the pulse of Nature keep, As in the early morning I lay awake from sleep, OFFICE, CLINTON HALL. And longed for something that would break Till I heard the first faint foot-fall And then I heard the restless hum But now the dawn has broken And labor calls her train Up from the slumbers of the night, And life has put in motion And I bless thee, O my Father, Yes, thank God, for human labor, No. 17. FOWLERS & WELLS, PUBLISHERS. Men seem to forget that the present life, although in the body, is a spiritual life, and, therefore, neglect to consider facts as developments of mind, in addition their fitness to be compared one with another, and thus throw some light on the modes of physical existence. The practical advantages of the comparative method recommend it to minds the scope of whose observations is limited to the outer world. Great minds are in a small minority; their subjective or internal reasonings have been made the objects of ridicule by clever comparative writers in all ages, and the unthinking world has joined in the ridicule, because it is much easier to compare one narrative of facts with another than to reason from mental phenomena to the settlement of doubtful questions concerning man's spiritual nature. The development of the powers of comparison, or the faculty of noticing resemblances and differences, without understanding the philosophy of resemblance and differences, has been the cause of much evil, it' is the parent of bitterness and strife in sects and parties; for shallow comparison can only see dishonesty in differences of opinion. As men study mind and understand the mental processes by which they arrive at their opinions, they become charitable towards the opinions of others. Machiavelli is claimed to be the first narrator of facts who also wrote their philosophy; he not only recorded the acts of mind, but showed also the mind itself. In this he was true to philosophy, which, in its most generalized sense, recognizes only action and being; action-meaning the facts which have been done in the world; being the mind which directed their performance. Our subject now unfolds itself, and offers two kinds of evidence as proof of the progressive principle in the mind: First, comparison of facts and phenomena, called objective reasoning.. Second, the study of our conceptions, or of the inner life, called subjective reasoning. The phenomena of the physical universe evidence an intelligent being whom we cannot consider subjectively, save as he reveals himself. As the phenomena of the physical universe manifest an intelligent being, so the outward acts manifest an inward or subjective principle which is called mind. The kind and quality of these outward From the Pittsburg Saturday Visiter. acts manifest the state of the mind at the time they are THE PHILOSOPHY OF PARTIES. performed. By studying the acts of men two thousand The records of the human race show a vast change in years ago we decide the human mind to be in a certain the condition of men. The rise and fall of empires, battles state or condition. By studying the manifestations of mind lost and won, monuments of genius and works of art are now, we decide the mental condition of man to be much all subjects of interest to the mere matter-of-fact man only improved. Thus by comparison, by objective evidence, we so far as they gratify his curiosity, or furnish some guide prove the mind has a progressive principle. There is also That faculty of to the future; but to the philosopher who considers them subjective evidence of the same principle. as indications of the state of the human mind, at the time the moral constitution which traces the relations of our they took place, they are things of deepest interest. So conceptions, stored in retentive and furnished by ready much of life is merely matter of fact that the bulk of memory, enables cultivated and virtuous mind to react upon minds have little disposition to higher mental exercise than themselves, to work their own purification, or, in the lanto compare facts with facts, for the benefit of this present guage of the Apostle, "to work out their own salvation," life, without looking forward to the future life to the spirit. o have higher and more spiritual emotions, desiring em bodiment in purer forms of existence, in loftier modes of beautiful, the good, the divine. These are the rewards of action. In this manner we come to discern more clearly constant love of virtue and truth. in our own souls "the beautiful, the good, the divine.” This notion is much better expressed by the author of the History of Modern Philosophy, to wit: "As a whole, therefore, the intellectual must be said to guide the practical man, the ground work of all our emotions being found in our conceptions." 66 'Such, however, cannot be said to be entirely and exclusively the case, for these emotions, when once excited, react in their turns upon the intellect. They invest its ideas with new lustre and beauty; they add intensity to all its operations; and by their natural tendencies they often direct it in its researches after fresh truths." From the Scientific American. THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. "It is dangerous to dance on fabrications." The New York Presbyterian copies a long article on the Electric Telegraph from the New York Evening Post, which is a real curiosity in its way, distinguished for plagiarism and a want of correct information. The article is taken from the Edinburg Review, and the names of places changed so as to make it an acceptable dish for the Having now, as we think, shown man to be progressive, American palate. It would answer very well only that we wish further to show that he is a creature of habit. there are some substances mixed with it of so indigestable Addison says, "man is a bundle of habits." All must a character to the epicure of science that we must point have observed the effects of good and bad habits. The them out to the unwary. As the article is copied from a philosophy of habit is very simple; it is the love of that British work, it describes the British Telegraph, and had it which affords pleasure; finds pleasure even in vice for a not been palmed off for the American, all would have been corrupt taste. The power of habit may be illustrated by well; but let us correct the errors. It says:the effect of a good and wise law under which generations "Our first concern is with the source of electricity, prosper, therefore love it, and desire no change: but the which in telegraph lines is generally the voltaic battery. A progressive nature of man urges him forward; he comes voltaic battery, in its simplest form, consists of a plate of to have new views, new interests never contemplated by copper and a plate of zinc arranged side by side, without the law, which begins first to oppress some interests, then touching each other, in a vessel containing diluted sulphuothers, and finally becomes burdensome to whole classes. ric acid. An iron wire coated with zinc to keep it from These effects of the law upon the oppressed parties ex- rusting is attached to the copper plate of the battery, and cite in them the principle of progress. They become then stretched the entire distance to which the communiradicals, reformers, progressives, destructives. There is cations are to be sent, say from New York to New Orleans, another party upon whom the law is not yet burdensome, and suppose the battery at New York. The wire is supwho remember only its good effects, and point proudly to ported by wooden posts, and insulated, i. e., passed through its past history. These are the creatures of habit-the rings of glass or porcelain, which are non-conducting subblindly conservative. Thus we perceive men are by their stauces, attached to the posts to prevent the electricity bemental constitution beings of habit and beings of progress. ing carried off into the earth, by means of the moisture By these two principies they are divided into two great which might be contained in the wood, so that there is no parties, on all subjects; but each party becomes in turn choice left but to proceed in the direction of the wire." the other in proportion as relations exist which excite in The above is quite correct in describing the way to conmen either the principle of progress or the principle of nect the machines, only it should have mentioned that cophabit. It is not the least remarkable fact in the operation per instead of zinced iron wire was generally employed; of these two principles that no outward causes can excite but here comes the beau ideal of plagiarism :— both at the same time in the same mind, and influence it "At New Orleans, the wire is placed in connection with to pursue the middle course-this is the work of reflection, the signal apparatus, and then is brought back to New an effort of wisdom, an injunction of conscience. Let us York through separate glass or porcelain tubes as before, suppose the progressive party to obtain power to adopt its and finally terminates at the detached zinc plate of the measures, and the country to prosper under them; these battery. causes would excite their consequence, pleasure, and the "There are many kinds of signal apparatus in use: progressives would become conservatives. The conserva- among the most convenient are the step by step, which is tives, being out of power and desiring to obtain it, would worked by a pedal like a piano-forte key, and the dial study the advanced interests of the country and propose plate. it. measures suited to the present and not the past; adapt "As the dial plate is the one most in use we will describe themselves to new discoveries of fact; thus the conserva- it. It is formed of a dial similar to a compass-box, but intives would become progressives. Therefore we infer that stead of being fixed in a horizontal position, is is placed parties change places, although they may not change vertically. Two magnetic needles are suspended on a names, just as existing relations to present measures or new pivot, in the center of the dial plate, the north pole of one propositions excite the principle of habit or the principle of needle is placed opposite the south pole of the other, and progress. The latter is in morals what the centrifugal the needles are balanced, so as to remain in a vertical poforce is in physics, a power from the center or source of sition when the telegraph wire is at rest-that is to say, thought, driving the mind thro' the vast infinitude of when no current of electric fluid is passing through thought, urging it right on, regardless of experience, crush- One of these dials would be hung at New Orleans, and ing the cherished opinions of past time. Then have we the telegraph wire would be coiled several times round its the periods of wars, revolutions and slaughtering error; case. The wires are provided near their ends at New then doth the world go mad. But the principle of habit, York with two movable pieces, which are arranged like the centripetal force, modifies the principle of progress, in such a manner as to be detached from the copper and their joint action causes the mind to describe a curve, and zinc plates in the battery at the pleasure of the opera "the line of beauty and grace," and so the human mind, tor, or they may be changed so as to bring either end of like a planet, revolving around its center or source; but the wire in contact with either of the plates of the unlike a planet it moves in spiral cycles, through the fields battery. of time, ever onward ever upward, each cycle widening as "As the current of electricity passes through the wire the mind ascends, until the vast cycle of eternity opens round the casing of the dial, it will deflect the needles upon the soul, prepared to enjoy the full perfection of the from a vertical position to a position right and left across "I had a little sister that came from the sky, the dial plate, but when one of the movable detached the wire to Philadelphia, then it comes through the earth pieces at the station at New York is taken away, the cir- back to the negative pole at New York-quick as the cuit will be broken, and the needle will resume its former lightning it darts through mountains and over rivers; vertical position; and when the connection is changed, that reminding one of the old nursery ballad— is to say, when the end of the wire which was formerly in connection with the copper plate is brought into connection with the zinc plate and the other end to the copper, the direction of the current will be changed, and the needles will again stand right and left across the dial plate, but This is a most wonderful phenomenon:-many have tried the end which formerly pointed to the right will now point to explain it, but have befogged the subject greatly. to the left. Now it is understood by the rule of the mana- There are three different kinds of Telegraphs employed gers of the telegraph, that one move to the right shall in the United States, namely, Morse's, House's, and Bain's. mean one letter, say R, and two moves shall mean I, one Not one like that described above. Nay, instead of the more to the left shall mean G, and two moves T; we have above being correct, when it says, "that already it is possithen the word RIGHT." ble to make marks on paper," every American Telegraph Now no such telegraph as that described here is used in does this. Morse's, the oldest Telegraph of all, marks on the United States. The words "New York and New the paper, and leaves a mechanical impression on it. Orleans" are changed from "London and Edinburg," in Morse's Telegraph may be thus described :-There is a the article of the Edinburg Review. The Signal Telegraph metal pen at New Orleans fixed on a pivot like a walking described is that of Cooke & Wheatstone's, in Britain. beam. When one end is drawn down; the other end flies But let us hear more of this sublime worthy-of-a-copyright up, and having a steel point on it, it marks a strip of paper, running along a roller, which is drawn along between. article: "One of the latest improvements in the telegraph has two other rollers. Now, by letting the other end of this been to use the moisture of the earth as a conducting pen come up, the steel point drops, and then it is thrown medium for completing the circuit. We will imagine the up again, leaving a space between the two marks on the wire, after being coiled round the dial case at New Orleans, paper. Now, as the paper is always moving, and as the to be broken off, and the end inserted in the ground, and point is held to it for a longer or shorter time, marks are a piece of wire from the zinc plate of the battery at New made of dots, spaces and dashes-thus. for E, and for York, to be also led into the ground; the electricity, after L, and for F, and thus by a combination of dots, spapassing along the wire from the copper plate of the battery, ces and dashes, the whole alphabet is formed, and these and traveling round the dial at New Orleans, and deflecting letters made into words, and the words into sentencesthe needle, will return through the earth to the wire plate compose the message. An "Electro Magnet" is used on at New York. We have only described the transmission Morse's Telegraph to operate the walking beam pen. This, of messages in one direction, as the answers from New by breaking and closing the circuit by some non-conducOrleans are sent by exactly the same operations, a battery ting substance (a key made of ivory or dry wood) at New being there also in connection with the telegraph wire, York writes the messages in Boston. Morse is the invenwhich is made to act on a dial at New York; and the tor of the "Electro Magnet" Telegraph, a very different wires are so arranged, that when the operator at one end thing from the Signalling Telegraph, and much better. turns his needle in any position, the needle of the other So far from the above being correct about printing comdial at the opposite end will assume a corresponding one. munications, why, House's, Telegraph does print all its "We are indebted to the experiments of scientific men messages in plain Roman le'ters. The operator at New of all countries for the great efficiency of the present tele- York plays upon his machine, like a lady at her piano, graphs: among these may be mentioned Morse, Wheat- and at Boston a little arm is seen revolving round and stone and Bain; and it is extremely probable that in our round, singing click, clack, click, and printing, in black letgeneration the means of printing the communications as ters, R, O, Y, A, L, E, H, O, U, S, E, on a strip of pathey are transmitted will be discovered. Already it is pos- per. On Morse's Telegraph the messages have to be resible to make marks upon paper, which operation may be written by a penman into plain English. The messages considered as the first step towards the great desideratum." by House's Telegraph are sent to the printer, and set up, The improvement spoken of, in making the earth form to use a homely phrase, "right off the reel." a part of the circuit, was the discovery of a Frenchman Bain's Telegraph also prints, but makes marks of a named Ampere, and was made more than fourteen years chemical nature, in character nearly like that of the Morse ago. Bain made a like discovery in 1842, and Alfred Telegraph, but no "Electro Magnet" is used. By breakVail in 1844; and the single circuit has always been em-ing and closing the circuit at New York, the pen which is ployed in the United States, and is not Wheatstone's in- in contact with chemically prepared paper at Philadelphia vention. Let us explain this :-On all our telegraphs two makes blue marks on the paper, and these blue marks wires at least are used, but two wires are not necessary to make the message. There is one part of the invention send a message from New York to Orleans, one will do, which is a curiosity in its way. That is, he writes the but in order to send and return messages two must be message first, on a strip of paper, by perforating it with used. It is a very strange thing that messages cannot be small holes for the dashes and the dots, and by making sent until the circuit is closed, that is, a current of electrici- this, in a very ingenious manner, break and close the cirty must be flowing from the positive to the negative pole. cuit he can send a message of 1,000 letters in one minute For example, here at New York is the battery to send a to any place. When there is time to prepare messages message to New Orleans; well it has two electric poles, a this is a grand way to transmit them rapidly. This invenpositive one at the zinc plate and a negative one at the tion embraces the idea of printing a pattern of calico in copper or platinum: these two poles must be connected Philadelphia by breaking and closing the circuit in New together, or no current will flow along the wire. The dis- York,-a most wonderful thing indeed. covery alluded to tells us that the earth forms part of this We have thus explained the operation of the three Teleconnection, it answers the part of a wire. It is strange-graphs that are now in use in America, and every person passing strange, but true, that the earth--not a wire- can see how very different they are from the signalling forms part of the circuit, to unite the two poles, and the one mentioned above. Oh what blunders we see the learned current from the positive pole at New York will flow on commit for want of learning. It is a very dangerous thing |