Page:The International Folk-Lore Congress of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, July, 1893.djvu/408

340 well as its testimony to great scientific facts? If this suggested theory, this idea tlaat east and west, during all the past ages, has the chain stretched, until now and here it has met, if this prove to be true;—then upon America, our native land, will be conferred the distinction of being the meeting-place of the two branches of the human family that started out from their common home centuries ago in opposite directions;—then to America, the land latest known, but best beloved of the gods, will belong the honor of gathering together the magicians, who with the ever-potent fire of knowledge, will weld together the long-sundered ends of that chain now circling our glorious sphere.