Page:A History of the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania.djvu/13

 INTRODUCTION. most enlightened nations of all periods have perceived the advantages, and zealously promoted the formation of colonial settlements. Accordingly those nations who most figure in the records of history were more or less engaged, at the acme of their prosperity, in thus extending the sphere of their influence and authority. In the language of William Penn, “Colonies are the seeds of nations, begun and nourished by the care of wise and populous countries, as conceiving them best for the increase of human stock, and beneficial for commerce.”

Without detailing the numerous instances of enterprise in this direction, or the circumstances attending their varied fortune, it will be pertinent to the subject of present interest to state prominently the fact, that of all the races who have been thus distinguished, not one has been more successful than that branch of the Teutonic stock from which we are lineally descended. Conqueror of the Roman Empire, and the legitimate inheritor of its glory, the race of Teutons has sent its sons broadcast over the earth, and has its offshoots, 2