previous next
[496] have found its way into the Atlantic, and finally reached a shore. Presuming on this smallest of all chances, we would now cast our historic block into the deep waters of 1855; hoping, that, after it has been tossed by the waves and winds of two centuries, it may be driven on the shore of 2055. Should it have this unexpected rescue, we would, in such case, try to cheer it, amid the awkwardness of its antique dress and the sorrows of its shattered condition, by sending with it our following letter of introduction:--

The inhabitants of Medford in 1855, to the inhabitants of Medford in 2055, send greeting:

children and Townsmen,--As we close this volume of history, which we have written for you, we would not send it without expressing our united and hearty good wishes for your health, prosperity, and happiness. That we have thought of you much and often, you will readily believe. We have hoped that physical training will in your day be so applied, that you can be strong like Maximinus; intellectual development so secured, that you can analyze like Bacon; moral power so advanced, that you can conquer like Paul; and true Christianity so received, that you can be one with Christ, as he is one with God.

The points in which you will exceed us are of course unknown to us; but we have unbounded faith in the energies of man. Onward and upward is the law; “Excelsior” the motto. You may look back on our age, and perhaps call it an age of darkness, persecution, and bad philosophy, and call it by its right name. Looking through the glimmerings of the future, we now, therefore, rejoice with you in advance over a progress in natural science, intellectual philosophy, and moral truth, to us inconceivable. The earth and sea, the air and light, will doubtless perform for you a thousand offices of help and beauty of which we never dreamed. The law regulating the weather will by you be understood; and you may journey through the depths of ocean and the depths of air as securely as we do on the surface of the ground. The waste fields now around us will doubtless, in your day, be filled with a crowded population; and Medford, as a part of the capital, may have lost its present individuality. We here solemnly and affectionately bequeath to you all we possess; with the hope and the prayer, that, long before our wishes reach you, there may be,


John Wilson and son. 22 School Street. Boston. 1855.

Tufts University provided support for entering this text.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Places (automatically extracted)

View a map of the most frequently mentioned places in this document.

Sort places alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a place to search for it in this document.
Medford (Massachusetts, United States) (3)

Download Pleiades ancient places geospacial dataset for this text.

hide People (automatically extracted)
Sort people alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a person to search for him/her in this document.
Paul (1)
Maximinus (1)
Jesus Christ (1)
Daniel C. Bacon (1)
hide Dates (automatically extracted)
Sort dates alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a date to search for it in this document.
1855 AD (2)
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: