Samuel Butler's Canterbury Pieces By Samuel Butler

















































































































 - 

Some few hints we have determined to venture upon, though we do so
with the profoundest diffidence.  Firstly, we would - Page 32
Samuel Butler's Canterbury Pieces By Samuel Butler - Page 32 of 52 - First - Home

Enter page number    Previous Next

Number of Words to Display Per Page: 250 500 1000

Some Few Hints We Have Determined To Venture Upon, Though We Do So With The Profoundest Diffidence.

Firstly, we would remark that as some of the lowest of the vertebrata attained a far greater size than has descended to their more highly organised living representatives, so a diminution in the size of machines has often attended their development and progress.

Take the watch for instance. Examine the beautiful structure of the little animal, watch the intelligent play of the minute members which compose it; yet this little creature is but a development of the cumbrous clocks of the thirteenth century - it is no deterioration from them. The day may come when clocks, which certainly at the present day are not diminishing in bulk, may be entirely superseded by the universal use of watches, in which case clocks will become extinct like the earlier saurians, while the watch (whose tendency has for some years been rather to decrease in size than the contrary) will remain the only existing type of an extinct race.

The views of machinery which we are thus feebly indicating will suggest the solution of one of the greatest and most mysterious questions of the day. We refer to the question: What sort of creature man's next successor in the supremacy of the earth is likely to be. We have often heard this debated; but it appears to us that we are ourselves creating our own successors; we are daily adding to the beauty and delicacy of their physical organisation; we are daily giving them greater power and supplying by all sorts of ingenious contrivances that self-regulating, self-acting power which will be to them what intellect has been to the human race.

Enter page number   Previous Next
Page 32 of 52
Words from 8621 to 8906 of 14251


Previous 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 Next

More links: First 10 20 30 40 50 Last

Display Words Per Page: 250 500 1000

 
Africa (29)
Asia (27)
Europe (59)
North America (58)
Oceania (24)
South America (8)
 

List of Travel Books RSS Feeds

Africa Travel Books RSS Feed

Asia Travel Books RSS Feed

Europe Travel Books RSS Feed

North America Travel Books RSS Feed

Oceania Travel Books RSS Feed

South America Travel Books RSS Feed

Copyright © 2005 - 2022 Travel Books Online