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281
Heroes of the Telegraph
·
John Munro
212
Speech
is
the
most
perfect
utterance
of
man;
but
its
powers
are
limited
both
in
time
and
space.
The
sounds
of
the
voice
are
fleeting,
and
do
not
carry
far;
hence
the
invention
of
letters
to
record
them,
and
of
signals
to
extend
their
range.
These
twin
lines
of
invention,
continued
through
the
ages,
have
in
our
own
day
reached
their
consummation.
The
smoke
of
the
savage,
the
semaphore,
and
the
telegraph
have
ended
in
the
telephone,
by
which
the
actual
voice
can
speak
to
a
distance;
and
now
at
length
the
clay
tablet
of
the
Assyrian,
the
wax
of
the
ancient
Greek,
the
papyrus
of
the
Egyptian,
and
the
modern
printing-press
have
culminated
in
the
phonograph,
by
which
the
living
words
can
be
preserved
into
the
future.
In
the
light
of
a
new
discovery,
we
are
apt
to
wonder
why
our
fathers
were
so
blind
as
not
to
see
it.
When
a
new
invention
has
been
made,
we
ask
ourselves,
Why
was
it
not
thought
of
before?
The
discovery
seems
obvious,
and
the
invention
simple,
after
we
know
them.
Now
that
speech
itself
can
be
sent
a
thousand
miles
away,
or
heard
a
thousand
years
after,
we
discern
in
these
achievements
two
goals
toward
which
we
have
been
making,
and
at
which
we
should
arrive
some
day.
We
marvel
that
we
had
no
prescience
of
these,
and
that
we
did
not
attain
to
them
sooner.
Why
has
it
taken
so
many
generations
to
reach
a
foregone
conclusion?
Alas!
they
neither
knew
the
conclusion
nor
the
means
of
attaining
to
it.
Man
works
from
ignorance
towards
greater
knowledge
with
very
limited
powers.
His
little
circle
of
light
is
surrounded
by
a
wall
of
darkness,
which
he
strives
to
penetrate
and
lighten,
now
groping
blindly
on
its
verge,
now
advancing
his
taper
light
and
peering
forward;
yet
unable
to
go
far,
and
even
afraid
to
venture,
in
case
he
should
be
lost.
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