138 ELISHA KENT KANE. 



of the supremacy of the mightier but baser power 

 of Spain, and remembered how a patriotic people, 

 whose glory has passed away forever, fought and 

 perished for the freedom and honor of their native 

 land with a heroism worthy of a happier fate ; if he 

 thus condensed into a single view an epitome of 

 the events of three mournful and momentous cen- 

 turies of one of the most remarkable portions of the 

 globe ; it was to deduce the great and wise principle 

 that, in all climes and ages, the just and beneficent 

 hand of Providence controls the affairs of the world 

 in accordance with his own purposes. If, within the 

 deep and burning bosom of Tael he endeavored to 

 probe the undiscovered mysteries of nature, and 

 boldly ventured where no foot of man had ever be- 

 fore intruded ; it was to enlarge his acquaintance with 

 the instructive volume of nature, to gain a clearer 

 view of the resources of the infinite and the creative, 

 and to explode or confound the superstitious vene- 

 ration with which pagan ignorance and idolatry had 

 invested the spot, and rendered it one of the dark 

 places of the earth, the habitation of cruelty. Every- 

 where the same consciousness of the uncertainty of 

 his life, and the same tendency to religious senti- 

 ment, as the result of it, accompanied him, and was 

 exhibited by him ; and hence the most impartial and 

 discerning critic of Dr. Kane's character may safely 



