But though men die, their works, their discoveries, and their inventions live. From that small beginning under this roof, arose an art till then scarcely known, that of telegraphing through the depths of the sea. Twenty-five years ago there was not an ocean cable in the world. A few short lines had been laid across the channel from England to the Continent, but all were in shallow water. Even science hardly dared to conceive of the possibility of sending human intelligence through the abysses of the ocean. But when we struck out to cross the Atlantic, we had to lay a cable over 2,000 miles long, in water over 2 miles deep. That great success gave an immense impulse to submarine telegraphy then in its infancy, but which has since grown till it has stretched out its fingers tipped with fire into all the waters of the globe. "Its lines have gone into all the earth, and its words to the ends of the world." To-day there are over 70,000 miles of cable, crossing the seas and the oceans. And, as if it were not enough to have messages sent with the speed of lightning, they must be sent in opposite directions at the same moment. I have just received a telegram from Valentia, Ireland, which reads, "This anniversary witnesses duplex working across the Atlantic as an accomplished fact"--by which the capacity of all our ocean cables is doubled. Who can measure the effect of this swift intelligence passing to and fro? Already it regulates the markets of the world. But better still is the new relation into which it brings the different kindreds of mankind. Nations are made enemies by their ignorance of each other. A better acquaintance leads to a better understanding; the sense of nearness, the relation of neighborhood, awakens the feeling of brotherhood. Is it not a sign that a better age is coming, when along the ocean beds strewn with the wrecks of war, now glide the messages of peace? One thing only remains which I still hope to be spared to see, and in which to take a part, the laying of a cable from San Francisco to the Sandwich Islands--for which I have received this very day a concession from King Kalakaua, by his Minister, who is here to night--and from thence to Japan, by which the island groups of the Pacific may be brought into communication with the continents on either side--Asia and America--thus completing the circuit of the globe. But life is passing, and perhaps that is to be left to other hands. Many of our old companions have fallen, and we must soon give place to our successors. But though we shall pass away, it is a satisfaction to have been able to do something that shall remain when we are gone. If in what I have done to advance this enterprise, I have done something for the honor of my country and the good of the world, I am devoutly grateful to my Creator. This has been the great ambition of my life, and is the chief inheritance which I leave to my children. * * * * * CORRESPONDENCE.