Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/165

Rh they might fly round the world; a third has, oh the happy man! discovered the means of mitigating life's bitter enemy, bodily suffering, and of extending the wings of the angel of sleep over the unfortunate one in the hour of his agony! And all this has been done in the early morning of the country's life, for in computing the age of a world's cultivation which has a thousand years for its future, two centuries' existence is merely as the morning hour; the day lies before it as its future. What will not this people accomplish during the day? Of a verity greater things than these! That will I venture to predict from its eye; for that eye is vigilant and bright; it is early accustomed keenly to observe the object which is, without asking about that which was, and without being checked by the warning cry of antiquity; it has a watchful eye, undaunted courage, and unwearied perseverance. And if this observant eye, when the working days are over, and the sabbath recurs, were directed more exclusively upon spiritual things, would it not even then make discoveries and introduce science and certainty into regions where now humanity is merely at home, by means of hope and faith. I believe so, because the purpose of this people's gaze as well as of their social arrangements, is, above everything else, to compass those ends which are of importance to the whole of humanity; I believe it, because the Germanic element, the character of which is profoundly intellectual and transcendental, is, in this country, mingled with the Anglo-Norman, and from the union of these two races a third national character may be expected, which shall combine the highest speculative thought with the clearest practical intuition.

But I will not any longer occupy your time, and perhaps your patience, with my endeavour to show the harmonious figure in the star of the American Union. Regard this then as an ear of corn, plucked from a rich harvest field. When I have completed my wanderings, when I have