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The numerous discoveries and inventions, chemical and mechanical, and the application of steam to machinery, have increased many fold the productive powers of labor and capital,
为数众多的发现和发明，不论化学还是机械领域，以及蒸汽机的应用，将生产力和赖以发展的资本提高数倍，
and have thereby greatly increased the number who may devote themselves to study and improvement,
而投身学习和自我完善的人数由此得以大幅度增加，
and the amount of means necessary for commercial exchanges, especially between the more and the less advanced and civilized portions of the globe, to the great advantage of both, but particularly of the latter.
尤其在发达和文明的区域之间进行商业交流的必要手段的数量，给两者带来很大的益处，特别是后者。
The application of steam to the purposes of travel and transportation, by land and water,
基于旅行和运输的目的，不论是陆路还是航运，
has vastly increased the facility, cheapness, and rapidity of both:
蒸汽机的应用极大地提升了陆路和航运的便利与速度，
diffusing, with them, information and intelligence almost as quickly and as freely as if borne by the winds; while the electrical wires outstrip them in velocity, rivaling in rapidity even thought itself.
四通八达，借助于陆路和航运，讯息和情报得以自由流通，迅速传递，仿佛御风而行一样。而电网在传递速度上比它们更快，其迅捷程度无出其右。
The joint effect of all this has been a great increase and diffusion of knowledge;
所有这些的共同作用使得知识得以迅速增加和传播，
and, with this, an impulse to progress and civilization heretofore unexampled in the history of the world, accompanied by a mental energy and activity unprecedented.
而知识作为进步和文明的推动力在以往的历史长河中是绝无仅有的，伴随而来的是人类心智机能和活力出现没有先例的巨大飞跃。
To all these causes, public opinion, and its organ, the press, owe their origin and great influence.
对于所有这些社会进步的滥觞，应该感谢公众舆论及其宣传工具。
