Page:The collected works of Theodore Parker volume 8.djvu/88

84 the Alleghanies? Why, the old Hebrew poet told us of One “which removeth the mountains, and they know not; which overturneth them in his anger; which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea. Lo! he goeth by me, and I see him not; he passeth on also, but I perceive him not.” Yes, there is One—his law “an eagle's flight above the Alleghanies”—who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven, whose strong hand setteth fast the mountains; yea, One who hath weighed the mountains in scales; before whom all nations are as a very little thing. Yes, Father in heaven! before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Yea, thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations. Thy name alone is excellent, thy glory above the earth and heaven!

No higher law for States than the poor statutes they enact!

It would be a great calamity for this nation to lose all of its mighty riches, and have nothing left but the soil we stand on. But in seven or eight generations it would all be restored again; for all the wealth of America has been won in less time. We are not two hundred and fifty years from Jamestown and Plymouth. It would be a great misfortune to lose all the foremost families of the nation. But England lost hers in the War of the Roses; France, in her Revolution. Nature bore great men anew, and fresh families sprung up as noble as the old. But if this generation in America could believe that there was no law of God for you and me to keep—say the Acts of Congress what they might say—no law to tame the ambition of men of mountain greatness, and curb the eagle's flight