Page:The Diothas, or, A far look ahead (IA diothasorfarlook01macn).pdf/307

 cases, by similar causes. In accordance with the same economic law by which the baser coin drives out the better, a lower class of labor drives out a superior. Thus the free population of Italy disappeared before the hordes of imported slaves, the superior population of New England before the crowds of imported laborers of an inferior class. In all probability, Papacy could not have developed amid the original population of free Italy: it certainly could never have gained a foot-hold amid the original white population of New England.

All this, and more, I learned during an excursion, in Hulmar's company, to Thiveat (corrupted from Civitas Beata), the later name of Boston. The journey there and back occupied, in all, about five hours. The city itself was as changed in appearance as in name. The old familiar landmarks had disappeared. The bay, the islands, the general outline of the shore, were still recognizable; but all else was strange.

We had taken our stand upon one of the remaining towers of the cathedral, a once magnificent structure, erected on the site now occupied by the State House. Planned to surpass St. Peter's, and requiring for its completion a whole century of energetic effort and unstinted outlay, it had been justly regarded as one of the architectural wonders of the world. Now it was mostly crumbled into ruin. The great tower, constructed of masses of granite rivalling in size those raised by the builders of Egypt, had alone resisted the storms of seventy centuries. Rising in solitary grandeur amid the ruins of its humbler dependencies, it seemed destined to rival the pyramids in duration. Like them, it had already outlived the very