Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 March 1860 — The Stereoscope: Its Wonderous Bcauty and Power. [ARTICLE]

The Stereoscope: Its Wonderous Bcauty and Power.

BY THE REV. S. I. PRIME, AUTHOR OF THE “POWER OF PRAYER.” As we for the first time fame in sight of the Pyramids in Egypt, we were instantly seized with the thought that we had seen them before! Was it a dream! Had we in a moment of waking delusion been here in some dim period of the past, or was this the ! reproduction in the so-.il of an image formed \ by long hours of silent meditati >n on these old mountains of buried kings! \Ve stood awestruck, not by the mightiness of the grand piles of the p«st ages heaped up in these stones, then wc were by the startling impression that this is not our first visit to tiie Pyramids, though we had certainly never j been ii, Egypt, before. j \mi merit's reflection called to mind the | Cosmo,, ins. ot Prof, Sau /, which had been fxhii it. , iji New York. Tne?o we had Irej q lien fly seen, ami so true were they to nai ture atid art. tha* ‘ho very sand on which ; were now standing, and tho huge s.-diynx i \at our leit hand, hoary limps ~t , monumental stone four huruhvd feet hi oh, 1 . and covering ten acres of ground, now f.,r the j lirrl time actually seen with these eves, were . j as tantitliar as tho scenes of chi : d!i<>'.>.T ” u i ! those Cosinoramas were nothing to lie tb--u ;ht of compared to tho Photographic art j assists*! by the Stereoscope: We are not given i i raptures, and are not dispose;! to .-peak ent -u -i stically, but we are in the maul jus; now of .saving what we have seen ; |at Anthony’s Stereo c< pic Gallery, 3f)B j Broadway. Yet no description of ours will j do justice to the beautiful results of the most j j beuutiiul of all the arts. There is nothing in the power ot the pen il or chisel, nothing jin the skill or patience of man to produce j | such effects as the sun-painting on paper, by ; l inch the perfect in,age, as in a mirror, is j : it pre . id pernet ua; ed, to be transported tto -.-tii s •)! tiie world, at;J there studied I with • .'•;<* satisfaction, that th • traveler ; | enjoys .••ho looks on tiie scene after toilsome ; ;m:rnies over land and sea. In some respects ; if tsure is greater. F the traveler has ! Die discomforts of travel; to. say n 'tiling o' ; tho Cost of it; he has its risks and tolls; hut’ ; whether we are b -iicv -d . ri-jr, \ e assert it ' i“'“l fig n ntly, tl;af v e c-inte.'t perceive /h-.ir'o- . If is better to tec the ruin , ' a., Eg -ptiari . : ctuple on tiie greui-d than here in A-tt ti ,ny’s j Etvreoscopes. Take.•,* t-x-impie Tits* temple . |of Af>ou Sinibel. The , a.-ved Images sit in I everlasting stone on i.,e uter wall, and tiie I great rock remains age after age the same, ■ and as wc look at them and it in tie > steieocii, r, iu-.‘ impression is as vivid as if sine -If could niskc it. You ■ cay sit for l ows, • 'i will, and study* very . -,nd f» -lino '- s \yondre.us v.-oi k, ;.i. i the lunger and H. . o-irmt'dy it ■ x .i.-;in< -.1, the more j'eruv - -.- in iiilji'coums nut. the rsp-, : ,c . i.. a ;,.u of uripm-H. There is the : ‘very rxk in the .! cm acr.’ai the bridge of ! ihe princip.'' figure A. n se, and the piece') ; seems jm.t rcioly to fall out, s.> real that you . would like to put y ",ir blind on it. and .iisoel , the illusion, sod eoiiviui <■’ vourse!' th it it is : tiie actual cbjee', and »< •{ :* pitrtore that y.»y ' art’ studying. We give tiie wtieel utyither ' l ?urr» and travel by way of the Insert, and rSi- ; n.;i, aiul the City of to ■ Uc-d into the Holy Lain!, and liero th most rr !e; ; nos anti ’ i venerated place - are presented with fidelity ; i incredible to one who hits net seen-, the sSom>j scope in its power of beauty. We venture j to say mat no one after reading these vr.iruf j j expressions <’! ours, will have 'half un idea j j of the marvelous tnitbfulunss of the art of! i bringing before him the very minutest and : | grandest productions of the objects -them- i j selves which he oas desired to see more than j

anything else on earth. Then leaving the f oil of Israel, we will visit Athens, and 11 me, anti roam among the temples of the gods and the emperors; an 1 then seek the grander works of nature ! : Switzerland and : on the banks of the Rbi'n. , and so make the tour to Europe. But we will not stop here. ! We will go to China and India and bring | home the cities and (empires of the Orient, ; the people themselves in the streets and to.- ’ll procession and worship, so that we lij :: representation.» of their manners : and custoi as pa at lieu palntirg and ho i words of .i -sc'iplion can p visibly present i th rn. Arid this brings ns to say that, the ! most astonishing power of this beautiful art ; is in its capacity 'to lake instantaneous views ! of objects in motion' the rolling sea, with j the ship or steamer plowing through the | waves, the shadows of hull and spur, and every ripple on Lite;surface are all re-pro-duced with perfect 'biithtulne*.,: a crowded -street at noon-day, men and women prqinenading, tiie horses and carriages rushing on as ; plea- or business calls, the onniibu-s and cars ; ken while under way, yet so perfect ; tli.it tiie names and numbers are rean as easily as mi those we rule in daily. Wn d > not understand the magic of the a ri. ji seems to ns that some mighty word must. | have been spoken to summon these multii ttide’s to stand it) their tracks at least an itiI nt; n?. while the sun that shines on all should ! have time to u'ikc a picture of the pagenl, i winc like alt of life is passing away, to be i seer more forever Yet that crowd povir--11 Broadway as if the whole city was ■.i i. i si-rcet, is fN.light, is arrested, is v y .cued on lhe p iper, iiud the very I :ati: o; every iiulividuul man, his g»lt, bis : ids coinpaiu’. are all “drawn out in ring characters,” nnd recorded here in A;iI thnsiy’s iusuint uveous views! Is i r iucredt|b e that every act a-d every word ie ones sln.'tld be Ini Dressed on the Great Maker’s book ot memories, when it is within the ! j.-cyer of feeble man to take or. a oil oi pal per three inches square, a thousand mcn.aiid ! women, with horses, carts and marble storehouses six stories Id I and trees and towers | and all that makes up the liable of such a | great town as this at high noon! | But we are weary of sight-seeing. We ; have been from I mil to land, and have dwelt I the longest, upon the grand -.ernes oi ourovn. : Tr< ton Falls, and the Genesee, and iiiatch- | lee Niagara! majestic Niagara; we can not 'fs row, bid. U e spray rises in thick ■ ck and the rainbow spans th ? myst.er - mis ueep and the great rush of waters conies on aw i! we were there on the Table Rov* of old, when ! lie sublitnest of earth's scenery was first and forever daguerreoiyped on onr memory. This; and more th.m we have named, or hinted at, may be seen at. any time by dropping in at Anthony’s rooms, as we have done, or if you prefer, you cun send to him for a Stereoscope, of any siz ■ or cost you wish: lor he has them always oir hand, with views in sots and assorted, and will send

| theia to vf’U in suy part of tiie world, Ilis i advertisement will fell you thenrtces -ail’d I styles of the instrumunt's'am! pictures-, lncompurably before all otHUrs do we regard these instantaneous views, r-*id these representations of foreign scenes, usd we are stare that every household that is imluf cdby these remarks of ours to add a stereoscop's to its sources of'enjoyment will be obliged te us for delineating the results of this 'delightful art.