Youth's Magazine,  9 (1836), 22–25.

Something New

R C, Wakefield, pseud.  [Richard Cope]

Genre:

Short Fiction

Subjects:

Progress, Railways, Steam-power, Steamships, Industrial Chemistry, Piety


    Mr Trewen is reading his daily newspaper, and is prompted by the 'long list of projected rail-roads' to exclaim 'More novelties still!'. He then reviews the changes introduced in his lifetime, including the introduction of gas-lighting, steamships, and 'lucifer matches'. (22) His wife recalls that these were all unanticipated, and that they had at first thought them fanciful. Mr Trewen remarks that 'it is very probable that the next age will produce things still more surprising'. They discuss the taste for 'something new', relating it to the account of Athens given in Acts 17. 21. They consider how this love of novelty should be applied to true religion. Mrs Trewen observes that in the 'works of God, there is something new that always strikes the eye'. (23)



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