The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph

"Man marks the earth with ruin: his control Stops with the shore: upon the watery plain The wrecks are all thy deed." Not all! The wrath of man adds to the fury of the elements. To strew the sea with wrecks is the work of lightning and tempest: man's nobler office is to restore what nature may destroy. It was the chief desire of him who has gone to the grave, that the link which unites England and America might bind the countries that he loved the most in indissoluble union. Though the two nations dwell apart, on opposite shores of the same great and wide sea, they are now brought almost within the sound of each other's voice and the touch of each other's hand: they can look into each other's eyes, and exchange their morning and evening congratulations with the rising and setting of each day's sun. May the instrument through which they look and speak never startle them with rude alarms, but continue to whisper peace in tones as gentle as the murmur of the sea, as long as the winds blow and the waters roll.