CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL
CONTENTS
THINGS IN EXPECTATION.
THE WRECKER.
LOWELL MECHANICS' FAIR.
THE SEA AND THE POETS.
CURIOSITIES OF CHESS.
'THE SUCCESSFUL MERCHANT.'
PET BIRDS OF INDIA.
JUVENILE ENERGY.
LITERARY CIRCLES OF LONDON.
THE SKY-LARK'S SONG.
DOG-SELLING EXTRAORDINARY.
CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'SINFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c.
| No. 429. New Series. | SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 1852. | Price 1½d. |
THINGS IN EXPECTATION.
The passing age is acknowledged to be remarkable in various respects.Great advances in matters of practical science; a vast development ofindividual enterprise, and general prosperity;—at the same time,strange retardations in things of social concern; a singular want ofearnestness in carrying out objects of undeniable utility. Muchgrandeur, but also much meanness of conception; much wealth, but alsomuch poverty. A struggle between greatness and littleness;intelligence and ignorance; light and darkness. Sometimes we feel asif going forward, sometimes as if backward. One day, we seem as ifabout to start a hundred years in advance; on the next, all is wrongsomewhere, and we feel as if hurriedly retreating to the eighteenthcentury!
Upon the whole, however, we are ourselves inclined to look at thebright side of affairs; and in doing so, we are not without hope ofbeing able to make some proselytes. Let us just see what are theprospects of the next twenty years—a long enough space for a man tolook forward to in anything else than a dream. War, it is true, mayintervene, or some other terrible catastrophe; but we shall not admitthis into our hypothesis, which proceeds on the assumption, thatalthough people may wrangle here and there, and here and there fly ateach other's throats, still the bulk of civilised mankind will go ontranquilly enough to present no direct barrier to the advancing tide.Here is a list of a few trifles in expectation.
A line of communication by railway from England to the principalcities in India, interrupted only by narrow sea-channels, and thesebridged by steamboats. It will then be possible to travel from Londonto Calcutta in a week.
At the same ti