It is impossible, however, even, to touch half the points
of interest in Dr. Siemens' very popular address. He does not believe that the electric light will at all supersede gas, though it will have a great future of its own. He does not think that the electric railways will, for a very long time, supersede our present railways, though the electric motor has a singularly great future of its own,—which he expects, by the way, to see applied effectually in agriculture ; and he seems to think we
may before long be using a gunpowder which it will not be neces- sary to keep dry, but which will be just as useful,—and therefore,
we suppose, just as dangerous,—when it is wet,—a prospect which lends rather a grim significance to the hackneyed quota- tion from Longfellow with which Dr. Siemens concluded his otherwise admirable address :—
" Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labour, and to wait."
If even wet gunpowder is to be as dangerous as dry, and school- boys got bold of it, we shall indeed need "a heart for any fate," and shall not have much chance of obeying the remainder of Longfellow's exhortation.
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