It is the magic power of genius which has given life and brain to machinery, and which compels it to perform the hard work of the factory, of the workshop, of the farm, and of the household. In almost every department of industry, machinery does the hard work. It spins and weaves and knits. It saws and planes and wields the hammer. It reaps and mows and thrashes. It churns and washes and plies the needle. In fact, it does nearly everything else for us, except to breathe, eat, and digest our food. It was the inventive genius of our Northern people--the legitimate outgrowth of our common-school system--that produced, at the moment when wanted, iron-clads, monster cannon, and Greek fire, and in the sequel, saved the Union, and overawed the powers of Europe. It was these warlike inventions which secured us the elements of a lasting peace, and the respect of the civilized world. It may be truly said that we now live longer in ten years than our ancestors did in twenty, and accomplish twenty times as much. Still it is not possible for any one man to know and do everything. Men of genius are specialties, seldom or never universalities. Hence, a diversity of talent naturally dictates a division of labor. And yet American genius, if not universal, must be acknowledged eminently inventive and practical. The Americans have made, we may venture to assert, more valuable discoveries in the last half century than all the world besides. The reason why this is so may be attributed to the operation of a physical law, in connection with the effect of a liberal system of popular education. The Americans are a mixed race, made up of all nations, and have been improved and elevated as a race by transfusion of blood, which has resulted in producing increased activity of brain, with new modes of thought and new exhibitions of intellectual power.