it's all done by steam. Hot water and smoke do every thing
now-a-days! Why there are a great number of machines, which formerly
required from two to forty or more horses each to put and keep in
motion, entirely worked by the steam arising from boiling water.'--'
Prodigious! Steam do all that! Astonishing!'"

"And truly," replied Bob, "notwithstanding I have witnessed many
improvements, I confess I am astonished at the various uses to which
this discovery has already been devoted, and the extraordinary powers it
possesses.

"Well, we will pursue the train of thought a little further: Suppose,
perambulating the streets till he is quite tired, and seeing alterations
and changes out of number, he enters a Coffee House, eats a hearty meal,
and taking a glass or two of wine, he falls into a musing train of ideas
of the wonders he has been witnessing, from which he is not disturbed,
till the hoarse voice of a Charley sounds in his ear, 'Past ten o'clock,
and a cloudy night,' at which he hastily starts up, discharges his bill,
and prepares, by buttoning up close and securing his trusty stick, for
(as he would naturally expect) a dull dreary walk. He sallies out thus
equipped, and, to his utter astonishment, finds the streets as busy as
in the middle of the day, and almost as light. He steps up to one of the
lights to ~74~~ examine it--'What can this be? It is not oil, there is
no vessel to contain it; surely this can't be steam also! But what can
it be?'--'Gas, Sir,' says a passenger, who overhears the question, 'Gas;
it is produced from coals set on fire and confined in a furnace, the
subtle vapour from which is conveyed by means of pipes, and, light
applied to it, immediately bursts into a flame.' His astonishment would
now be complete, and if he did sleep after, it would be difficult to
persuade him it was not all a dream."

"Our wise forefathers knew the worth of land,
And bank'd the Thames out with laborious hand;
From fresh encroachments bound it's restless tide
Within a spacious channel deep and wide.
With equal pains, revers'd, their grandsons make
On the same spot a little inland lake;
Where browsing sheep or grazing cattle fed,
The wondrous waters new dominion spread;
Where rows of houses stood through many a street
Now rows of ships present a little fleet.
Nay, we had made, had Nature not refus'd,