future convulsion; or like the coral insect,
which, in forming his separate cell, unconsciously assists in laying the
foundation of islands and vast regions of solid earth; we, the creatures
of the hour, all unconscious of the record we are making, leave
imperishable memorials of our existence and works, in the apparently
petty and fugitive contents of the journals which we read daily, and in
which we make known our business and our wants. Narratives and formal
descriptions may be one-sided, and may easily deceive and mislead; but
these indications, which will be preserved in the social strata as they
slowly subside in the ocean of humanity, carry in themselves perfect
fulness and absolute verity.

One of the most significant and influential results of the wide and
rapid circulation of newspapers is to be found in the simultaneous
impression made on the popular mind throughout the vast extent of our
country. Flashed on the telegraph, daguerreotyped and made visible in
the newspaper, every event of any importance, occurring in any part of
the world, is communicated, almost at the same moment, to many millions
of people. All are impressed at the same time with the same thoughts, or
with such kindred ideas as will naturally arise from reflection upon the
same facts. Humor, with its thousand tongues, is hushed; and the
telegraph, under control of agents employed to sift the truth, and
responsible for it, takes its place. Falsehood still may, and, indeed,
often does tamper with this mighty instrument; but its speed is so great
that it can overtake even falsehood, and soon counteract and correct the
mischief. What is the import of this momentous fact,--the instantaneous
communication of information over a continent, and the participation of
all minds, in the same thoughts, virtually at the same time? Undoubtedly
the result must be a closeness of intercourse and a completeness of
cooperation, which will give to the social organization a power and
efficiency in accomplishing great ends, such as no human thought has
ever heretofore conceived. Society becomes a unity in the highest and
truest sense of that term; like the bodily frame of the individual man,
it is connected throughout all its parts by a network of nerves, every
member sympathizing with every other, feeling the same impulses, having
the same knowledge, and forming judgments upon the same facts. When
sentiments are perfectly harmonious among men, the increase of powe