Page:How Marcus Whitman Saved Oregon.djvu/19



The home of civilization was originally in the far East, but its journeys have forever been westward. The history of the world is a great panorama, with its pictures constantly shifting and changing. The desire for change and new fields early asserted itself. The human family divided up under the law of selection and affinities, shaped themselves into bands and nationalities, and started upon their journey to people the world.

Two branches of the original stock remained as fixtures in Asia, while half a dozen branches deployed and reached out for the then distant and unexplored lands of the West. They reached Europe. The Gaul and the Celt, the Teuton and Slav, ever onward in their march, reached and were checked by the Atlantic that washed the present English, German and Spanish coasts. The Latin, Greek and Illyrian were alike checked