DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1311#0074
OF THE WORLD'S INDUSTRY. 51
hour. Each paper contains matter that would fill an octavo volume. The debates in
parliament that may have been heard at two o'clock in the morning, are that same
morning laid on the breakfast-table of the country gentleman who is residing one
hundred miles from the House of Commons. And not only have the speeches been
reported and printed, but they are accompanied by well-written comments of the editor.
Wonderful celerity!" " I hope," thought our listener, " that the orations are equally
wonderful. They should be. From what I remember of such matters, I think I could
wait a few more hours for them without great impatience; and perhaps the well-written
comments would not suffer by the delay." Quitting the lecturer and the scene of his
glory, Voltaire mounted the gallery. Here he encountered what, for a time, entirely
subdued the captious spirit, and called forth all the natural energy and enthusiasm of one
who had been poet, wit, and philosopher. This was the electric telegraph. He could
scarcely contain his enthusiasm as he watched the index on one dial-plate, and saw the
movement responded to by the index of a corresponding dial, and reflected that no
conceivable length of distance would render the operation less certain or less instantane-
ous.- Thought travels here with its own rapidity; manumitted from the trammels of
space and time. Yet, after all. he added, it can be but human thought that travels on
the wire.
Stepping on a little further, he found himself surrounded by improved fire-arms, mus-
kets that would kill at the distance of five hundred yards, and many-barrelled pistols,
which promised to deal half-a-dozen deaths in as many seconds. The cynical humour
returned. "They are not all messages of peace and love," thought he, "that yonder
electric telegraph will be employed to communicate. The old game of war is played at
still, and, like the rest, duly provided with improved implements. And what is it I
read on,this label? (A pair of duelling pistols.' Duelling,by the law of England, is
murder. It must be a very dead law, when, in this industrial exhibition we have ' duelling
pistols' thus distinctly labelled. 'Pistols for committing murder!' would have been
rather a startling designation. It seems, therefore, that, in the public opinion, duelling
is just where it used to be, just the same honourable custom, where men contrive to
mingle in exquisite proportions the foolery of coxcombs, and the ferocity of savages.
The progress seems to be all in the mechanical department." Our hero next encounters
a Socialist and a member of the Peace Society, with whom he has a long and animated
discussion. With his usual volatility, however, he abruptly breaks away from his adver-
sary, and nimbly retraces his way along the gallery. In his haste he entered, unawares,
into a wooden case, or closet, where there was exhibited an anatomical model, in wax, of
the human figure. It was the size of life, and stood upright, with the breast laid
open, exposing for convenient inspection the heart and liver, and all the other great
viscera of the human frame. "Ha! ha!" he cried—"No change here. The same as
ever—heart, stomach, and the rest of us; the same creature they laid in the pyramids,
and burnt upon the shore, and deposit now in deep holes in the earth. No alteration
here. Oh, those bowels! how often did they afflict me!" Apropos of burying, he was
involved soon after in the examination of a new design for stowing away the increasing
multitude of our dead. ; It was the model of a pyramid, to be erected of the same size as
the greatest of the Egyptian pyramids, but to be erected after a very different fashion.
For whereas the ancient pyramid was an encasement of stone enclosing the coffin of one
, man, in the modern pyramid every stone might be said to contain its dead. The area
would be first covered with vaults built close to one another, on these a second area
of similar vaults would be constructed, on these a third rising gradually to an apex.
The project had something in it to please a reflective mind. How the two structures
would contrast—the despot's pyramid and the democratic pyramid! What admirable
hour. Each paper contains matter that would fill an octavo volume. The debates in
parliament that may have been heard at two o'clock in the morning, are that same
morning laid on the breakfast-table of the country gentleman who is residing one
hundred miles from the House of Commons. And not only have the speeches been
reported and printed, but they are accompanied by well-written comments of the editor.
Wonderful celerity!" " I hope," thought our listener, " that the orations are equally
wonderful. They should be. From what I remember of such matters, I think I could
wait a few more hours for them without great impatience; and perhaps the well-written
comments would not suffer by the delay." Quitting the lecturer and the scene of his
glory, Voltaire mounted the gallery. Here he encountered what, for a time, entirely
subdued the captious spirit, and called forth all the natural energy and enthusiasm of one
who had been poet, wit, and philosopher. This was the electric telegraph. He could
scarcely contain his enthusiasm as he watched the index on one dial-plate, and saw the
movement responded to by the index of a corresponding dial, and reflected that no
conceivable length of distance would render the operation less certain or less instantane-
ous.- Thought travels here with its own rapidity; manumitted from the trammels of
space and time. Yet, after all. he added, it can be but human thought that travels on
the wire.
Stepping on a little further, he found himself surrounded by improved fire-arms, mus-
kets that would kill at the distance of five hundred yards, and many-barrelled pistols,
which promised to deal half-a-dozen deaths in as many seconds. The cynical humour
returned. "They are not all messages of peace and love," thought he, "that yonder
electric telegraph will be employed to communicate. The old game of war is played at
still, and, like the rest, duly provided with improved implements. And what is it I
read on,this label? (A pair of duelling pistols.' Duelling,by the law of England, is
murder. It must be a very dead law, when, in this industrial exhibition we have ' duelling
pistols' thus distinctly labelled. 'Pistols for committing murder!' would have been
rather a startling designation. It seems, therefore, that, in the public opinion, duelling
is just where it used to be, just the same honourable custom, where men contrive to
mingle in exquisite proportions the foolery of coxcombs, and the ferocity of savages.
The progress seems to be all in the mechanical department." Our hero next encounters
a Socialist and a member of the Peace Society, with whom he has a long and animated
discussion. With his usual volatility, however, he abruptly breaks away from his adver-
sary, and nimbly retraces his way along the gallery. In his haste he entered, unawares,
into a wooden case, or closet, where there was exhibited an anatomical model, in wax, of
the human figure. It was the size of life, and stood upright, with the breast laid
open, exposing for convenient inspection the heart and liver, and all the other great
viscera of the human frame. "Ha! ha!" he cried—"No change here. The same as
ever—heart, stomach, and the rest of us; the same creature they laid in the pyramids,
and burnt upon the shore, and deposit now in deep holes in the earth. No alteration
here. Oh, those bowels! how often did they afflict me!" Apropos of burying, he was
involved soon after in the examination of a new design for stowing away the increasing
multitude of our dead. ; It was the model of a pyramid, to be erected of the same size as
the greatest of the Egyptian pyramids, but to be erected after a very different fashion.
For whereas the ancient pyramid was an encasement of stone enclosing the coffin of one
, man, in the modern pyramid every stone might be said to contain its dead. The area
would be first covered with vaults built close to one another, on these a second area
of similar vaults would be constructed, on these a third rising gradually to an apex.
The project had something in it to please a reflective mind. How the two structures
would contrast—the despot's pyramid and the democratic pyramid! What admirable