Labour, laughing at difficulties, spans majestic rivers, carries viaducts over marshy swamps, suspends a?rial bridges above deep ravines, pierces the solid mountain with its dark, undeviating tunnel, blasting rocks and filling hollows; and, while linking together with its iron but loving grasp all nations of the Earth, verifies, in a literal sense, the ancient prophecy: "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low."④Labour draws forth its delicate iron thread,⑤ and, stretching it from city to city, from province to province, through mountains and beneath the sea, realizes more than fancy ever fabled, while it constructs a chariot on which speech may outstrip the wind, compete with the lightning, and fly as rapidly as thought itself.
Labour seizes the thoughts of genius, the discoveries of science, the admonitions of piety, and with its magic types impressing the vacant page, renders it pregnant with life and power, perpetuating truth to distant ages, and diffusing it to all mankind.
Labour sits enthroned in palaces of crystal, whose high arched roofs proudly sparkle in the sunshine which delighteth to honour it, and whose ample courts are crowded with the trophies of its victories in every country and in every age.
Labour, a mighty magician, walks forth into a region⑥uninhabited and waste;he looks earnestly at the scene, so
quiet in its desolation; then, waving his wonder-working wand, those dreary valleys smile with golden harvests; those barren mountain-slopes are clothed with foliage; the furnace blazes; the anvil rings; the busy wheels whirl round; the town appears, -the mart of Commerce, the hall of Science, the temple of Religion, rear high their lofty fronts; a forest of masts, gay with varied pennons, rises from the harbour; the quays are crowded with commercial spoils, -the peaceful spoils which enrich both him who receives and him who yields. Representatives of far- off regions make it their resort; Science enlists the elements of earth and heaven in its service; Art, awaking, clothes its strength with beauty; Literature, new born, redoubles and perpetuates its praise; Civilization smiles; Liberty is glad; Humanity rejoices; Piety exults, -for the voice of industry and gladness is heard on every hand. And who, contemplating such achievements, will deny that there is dignity in Labour!
- NEWMAN HALL
NOTES
1Pulsations of an untrammelled commerce.-This figure compares the circulation of commodities in merchandise to the circulation of blood in the human body, the regularity of which is indicated by the beats of the pulse. Untrammelled, means free from the restrictions of import and export duties.
2Particles of rock, the sand of which glass is made. This paragraph refers to the work of the optician, in making spectacles, telescopes, and microscopes.
3Fragrant essences.-The pungent smell arising from putrefying substances is caused by the ammonia which they give off. It is well known that some of the finest "scents" are manufactured from putrefying matter.
4"Every valley shall be exalted," &c.-Isaiah , xl. 4.
5Iron thread.-This paragraph of course refers to the electric telegraph.
6A region uninhabited and waste.-This passage rapidly sketches the progress of a colony, such as one of those in Australia or New England, from the time of its first settlement on a barren shore, till it becomes a populous and flourishing state.
