The record in the preceding pages of some of the most remarkable applications of science during the present century, exhibits an amount of intelligence, of skill, and of power that seems, when viewed in its completed form, to be superhuman. It is only by tracing each invention to its source, and by noting the step by step advances by which it has arrived at its present state, that we can bring ourselves to believe that the great development of power and the display of ingenuity we witness, can have been accomplished by ordinary men. This feeling of admiration, at the results of human industry and inventive genius, was strongly excited on passing through the wonderful collection of the works of all nations in the Great Exhibition of 1851. After walking through the long avenues, crowded with the most highly finished manufactured goods, and with works of art, adapted to every purpose and capable of gratifying every luxurious taste of highly civilized life, we beheld, in another part of the building, the self-acting machines by which many of those productions had been manufactured. We saw various mechanisms, moving without hands to guide them, producing the most elaborate works; massive steam engines,—the representatives of man's power,—and exquisite contrivances, displaying his ingenuity and perseverance; and we felt inclined to exalt the attributes of humanity, and to think that nothing could surpass the productions there displayed. But as if to repress such vainglorious thoughts, there stood in the transept of the building, surrounded by and contrasting with the handiworks of man, one of the simplest productions of Nature. Every single leaf on the spreading branches of that magnificent tree exhibited in its structure, in its self-supporting and self-acting mechanism, and in the adaptation of surrounding circumstances for its maintenance, an amount of intelligent design and contrivance and power, with which there was nothing to compare. After examining the intricate ramifications of arteries and veins for spreading the sap throughout the leaf, and the innumerable pores for inhaling and exuding the gases and moisture necessary for its continued existence; after carrying the mind beyond the beautiful structure itself, to consider the provisions of heat and moisture and air, without which all that mechanism would have been useless; and having reflected on the presence of the mysterious principle which actuated the whole arrangement of fibres, and gave life to the crude elements of matter,—we could not fail to be impressed with the insignificance of the most elaborate productions of man, when compared with the smallest work of the Omnipotent Creator.
THE END.
[FOOTNOTES:]
[1] British Association Report for 1853.
[2] The original photographs produced by M. Niepce are still preserved in good condition, and were last year exhibited at the Royal Institution.
[3] "Philosophical Magazine," February, 1843.
[4] Brewster's Encyclopædia, article "Kaleidoscope."
[5] "The Stereoscope: its History, Theory, and Construction," by Sir David Brewster.
[6] Primary signals are those in which the letter indicated is represented by a single deflection of the needles in either direction. A single needle telegraph can have only two primary signals, one to the right and one to the left; all the other letters being indicated by repeated deflections. In several instances four deflections are required to signal a single letter.
[7] "Manual of Electricity," p. 251; and Reports of the Proceedings of the British Association for 1851 and 1854.