fe, let him consider the arrangement
which ought to have been made years since, for lee shores, railroad
collisions, and that curious class of maritime accidents where one
steamer runs into mother under the impression that she is a light
house. Imagine the Morse alphabet applied to a steam-whistle, which is
often heard five miles. It needs only _long_ and _short_ again. "_Stop
Comet_," for instance, when you send it down the railroad line, by the
wire, is expressed thus:

... -- . . ....,... . . -- --- . --

Very good message, if Comet happens to be at the telegraph station when
it comes! But what if Cornel has gone by? Much good will your trumpery
message do then! If, however, you have the wit to sound your long and
short on an engine-whistle, thus;--Scre scre, scre; screeee; scre scre;
scre scre scre scre scre; scre scre scre,--scre scre; screeeee screeeee;
scre; screeeee;--why, then the whole neighborhood, for five miles
around, will know that Comet must stop, if only they understand spoken
language,--and among others, the engineman of Comet will understand it;
and Comet will not run into that wreck of worlds which gives the
order,--with the nucleus of hot iron and his tail of five hundred tons
of coal.--So, of the signals which fog-bells can give, attached to
light-houses. How excellent to have them proclaim through the darkness,
"I am Wall "! Or of signals for steamship-engineers. When our friends
were on board the "Arabia" the other day, and she and the "Europa"
pitched into each other,--as if, on that happy week, all the continents
were to kiss and join hands all round,--how great the relief to the
passengers on each, if, through every night of their passage, collision
had been prevented by this simple expedient! One boat would have
screamed, "Europa, Europa, Europa," from night to morning,--and the
other, "Arabia, Arabia, Arabia,"--and neither would have been mistaken,
as one unfortunately was, for a light-house.

The long and short of it is, that whoever can mark distinctions of time
can use this alphabet of long-and-short, however he may mark them. It is
therefore within the compass of all intelligent beings, except those who
are no longer conscious of the passage of time, having exchanged its
limitations for the wider sweep of eternity. The illimitable range of
this alphabet, however, is not half disclosed when this has been said.
Most articulate language addresses itself to one sense, or at most to