The Continental Monthly, Vol V. Issue III. March, 1864 | Page 7

Census of 1860, South Carolina had 45
journals and periodicals, and her annual circulation was 3,654,840

copies. The circulation therefore of Massachusetts exceeded that of
South Carolina more than ninety-eight millions of copies, while
Maryland exceeded South Carolina more than seventeen millions of
copies. So much for South Carolina as a great political teacher. As to
schools in 1850: South Carolina had 724 public schools, 739 teachers,
17,838 pupils. Massachusetts, then, had 158,637 more pupils at public
schools than South Carolina, and Maryland 15,416 more pupils at
public schools than South Carolina.
The press of Massachusetts, we have seen, circulated in 1860 upward
of one hundred and two millions of copies, equal to 279,454 per day,
including journals and periodicals, each read, on an average, by at least
two persons. This is independent of books and pamphlets, and of the
very large circulation of papers from other States and from Europe.
What a flood of light is thus shed daily and hourly upon the people of
Massachusetts! This intellectual effulgence radiates by day and night. It
is the sun in its meridian splendor, and the stars in an ever-unclouded
firmament. It has a centre and a circumference, but no darkness.
Ignorance vanishes before it; wealth follows in its train; labor rejoices
in its association, and finds its products more than doubled; freedom
hails its presence, and religion gives it a cordial welcome; churches,
schools, academies, colleges, and universities acknowledge its mighty
influence. Science penetrates the secrets of nature, and unfolds each
new discovery for the benefit of man. Coal, the offspring of the sun,
develops its latent energy, and water contributes its untiring hydraulic
power. Machinery takes more and more the place of nerves and
muscles, cheapens clothing and subsistence and all the necessaries of
life, and opens new fields of industry, and more profitable employment
for labor. Steam and lightning become the slaves of man. He performs
the journey of a day in an hour, and converses in minutes around the
globe. The strength of man may not have been much increased, but his
power is augmented a thousand fold.
His life may not have been materially lengthened, but, in the march of
knowledge, a year now is as a century, compared with man's progress
in the darkness of the middle ages. The eternal advance toward
omniscience goes on, but is like that of the infinite approach of the

asymptote, which never reaches the hyperbolic curve. The onward of
science is in a geometrical ratio, so that in time, the intellectual
progress of a day in the future, must exceed that of a century in the past.
Knowledge is enthroned as king, and grand truths and new ideas are his
ministers. Science takes the diameter of the earth's orbit as a base line
and unit of measurement, and with it spans immensity, and triangulates
the nebulous systems amid the shadowy verges of receding space. Its
researches are cosmical upon the earth and the heavens, and all the
elements minister to its progress. Sink to the lowest mine, or fathom the
ocean's depth, or climb the loftiest mountains, or career through the
heavens on silken wings, and it is there also. On--on--on;
nearer--nearer--still nearer it moves forever and forever, with
accelerated speed, toward the infinite eternal. Such are the triumphs of
knowledge; and he who diffuses it among our race, or discovers and
disseminates new truths, advances man nearer to his Creator; he exalts
the whole race; he elevates it in the scale of being, and raises it into
higher and still higher spheres.
It is science that marks the speed of sound and light and lightning,
calculates the eclipses, catalogues the stars, maps the heavens, and
follows, for centuries of the past and the future, the comet's course. It
explores the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms. With geology, it
notes the earthquake upheaval of mountains, and, with mineralogy, the
laws of crystallization. With chemistry, it analyzes, decomposes, and
compounds the elements. If, like Canute, it cannot arrest the tidal wave,
it is subjecting it to laws and formulas. Taking the sunbeam for its
pencil, it heliographs man's own image, and the scenery of the earth
and the heavens. Has science any limits or horizon? Can it ever
penetrate the soul of man, and reveal the mystery of his existence and
destiny? It is certainly exploring the facts of sociology, arranging and
generalizing them, and deducing laws.
Man, elevated by knowledge in the scale of being, controls the forces
of nature with greater power and grander results, and accumulates
wealth more rapidly. The educated free labor of Massachusetts, we
have seen, doubles the products of toil, per capita, as compared with
Maryland, and quadruples them (as the Census shows) compared with

South Carolina. One day's labor of a man in Massachusetts is more