e workmen we have made of the great
elements around us. See how magnificent nature has humbled itself, and
works in shirt-sleeves. Without food, without sweat, without weariness,
it toils all day at the loom, and shouts lustily in the sounding wheels.
How diligently the iron fingers pick and sort, and the muscles of steel
retain their faithful gripe, and enormous energies run to and fro with
an obedient click; while forces that tear the arteries of the earth and
heave volcanoes, spin the fabric of an infant's robe, and weave the
flowers in a lady's brocade.

I think, then, we may appropriately call it--The Age of Machinery. It is
not a peculiarity of the city, but, rather, seeks room to stretch
itself out; and so you may perceive its smoky signals hovering over a
thousand vallies, and the echo of its mighty pulses throbbing among the
loneliest hills. Nevertheless, it is sufficiently developed here to
illustrate the Conditions of Humanity in the City, and this fact,
together with the general interest of the subject, is my warrant for
taking it up in the present discourse. And my remarks must necessarily
be of a general cast, as I have no room for the statistics, and details,
and various discussions which grow out of the theme.

And the key-note of all that I shall say, at the present time, is really
in the text itself--"For the spirit of the living creature was in the
wheels."

In the first place, these words suggest the relations of _Use_ and
_Help_ between Man and Machinery. Upon surveying these numerous and
complicated instruments, the thought that most readily occurs, perhaps,
is that of the _necessity_ of machinery. The very first step that man
takes, out of the condition of infant weakness and animal rudeness, must
be accomplished by the aid of some implement. He alone, of all beings
upon the face of the earth, is obliged to _invent_, and is capable of
endless invention. The necessity for this springs out, and is a prophecy
of, his destiny. The moment he was seen fashioning the first tool,
however imperfect, that moment was indicated the difference between
himself and the brute, and the control he was destined to gain over the
world about him. To fulfil this destiny, he confronts nature with naked
hands; and yet, there is the earth to plough, the harvest to reap, the
torrent to bridge, the ocean to cross; there are all the results to
achieve which constitute the difference between the primitive man, and
the civi