sailor who may be here it is not much, to me it seems a good deal that Mr. Cyrus Field, in the prosecution of this great work (not being a sailor, always bear that in mind), has crossed the Atlantic more than forty times; and he has, as you know, by an energy almost without example, by a courage nothing could daunt, by a faith that nothing could make to falter, and by sacrifices beyond estimation--for there are sacrifices that he has made I would not in his presence relate to this meeting--aided by discovery and by science and by capital, he has accomplished the grandest triumph which the science and the intellect of man have ever achieved. Soon after the successful laying of the cable I had an opportunity of referring to it in a speech spoken in the north of England, when I took the liberty of describing Mr. Cyrus Field as the Columbus of the nineteenth century; and may I not ask, when that cable was laid, when the iron hand grasped in the almost fathomless recesses of the ocean the lost and broken cable, if it be given to the spirits of great men in the eternal world, in their eternal life, to behold the great actions of our lives, how must the spirit of that grand old Genoese have rejoiced at the triumph of that hour, and at the new tie which bound the world he had discovered to the world to which but for him it might have been for ages to come unknown!... I believe no man--not Cyrus Field himself--has ever been able to comprehend the magnitude of the great discovery, of the great blessing, to mankind which we have received through the instrumentality of him and his friends, the scientific men by whom he has been assisted. I say with the greatest sincerity that my heart is too full, when I look at this question, to permit me to speak of it in the manner in which I feel that I should speak. We all know that there are in our lives joys, and there are sometimes sorrows, that are too deep for utterance, and there are manifestations of the goodness, and the wisdom, and the greatness of the Supreme which our modes of speech are utterly unable to describe. We can only stand, and look on, and wonder, and adore. But of the agency--the human agency--concerned we may more freely speak. I honor the great inventors. In their lifetime they seldom receive all the consideration to which they are entitled.... I honor Professor Wheatstone and Professor Morse and all those men of science who have made this great marvel possible; and I honor the gallant captain of that great ship, whose precious cargo, not landed in any port, but sunk in ocean's solitary depths, has brought measureless blessings to mankind; and I honor him, our distinguished (may I not say our illustrious?) guest of to-night,