good in man leans on what
is higher. This rule holds in small as in great. Thus, all our strength
and success in the work of our hands depend on our borrowing the aid of
the elements. You have seen a carpenter on a ladder with a broad-axe,
chopping upward chips from a beam. How awkward! At what disadvantage he
works! But see him on the ground, dressing his timber under him. Now,
not his feeble muscles, but the force of gravity brings down the axe;
that is to say, the planet itself splits his stick. The farmer had much
ill-temper, laziness, and shirking, to endure from his hand-sawyers
until one day he bethought him to put his saw-mill on the edge of a
waterfall; and the river never tires of turning his wheel; the river is
good-natured, and never hints an objection.

We had letters to send: couriers could not go fast enough, nor far
enough; broke their wagons, foundered their horses, bad roads in spring,
snow-drifts in winter, heat in summer, could not get the horses out of a
walk. But we found out that the air and earth were full of electricity;
and always going our way,--just the way we wanted to send. _Would he
take a message?_ Just as lief as not; had nothing else to do;
would carry it in no time. Only one doubt occurred, one staggering
objection,--he had no carpet bag, no visible pockets, no hands, not so
much as a mouth, to carry a letter. But, after much thought and many
experiments, we managed to meet the conditions, and to fold up the
letter in such invisible compact form as he could carry in those
invisible pockets of his, never wrought by needle and thread,--and it
went like a charm.

I admire still more than the saw-mill the skill which, on the sea-shore,
makes the tides drive the wheels and grind corn, and which thus engages
the assistance of the moon like a hired hand, to grind, and wind, and
pump, and saw, and split stone, and roll iron.

Now that is the wisdom of a man, in every instance of his labor,
to hitch his wagon to a star, and see his chore done by the gods
themselves. That is the way we are strong, by borrowing the might of the
elements. The forces of steam, gravity, galvanism, light, magnets, wind,
fire, serve us day by day, and cost us nothing.

Our astronomy is full of examples of calling in the aid of these
magnificent helpers. Thus, on a planet so small as ours, the want of
an adequate base for astronomical measurements is early felt, as, for
example, in detecting the parallax of a star