THE INFLUENCE OF EARLY SETTLERS. 199 



portant changes is no proof that the impress now being 

 given to the new communities of the West will not be 

 permanent. There is no likelihood that the foreign im- 

 migration now pouring in upon us is ever to be sup- 

 planted by another stock. Instead, it will be reinforced 

 until there is an equalization of population, between the 

 Old World and the New, then it will cease. Beyond a 

 peradventure, the character, and hence the destiny, 

 of the great West, for centuries to come, is now being 

 determined. 



"I hear the tread of pioneers, 

 Of nations yet to be; 

 The first low wash of waves, where soon 

 Shall roll a human sea. 



" The rudiments of empire here 

 Are plastic yet, and warm; 

 The chaos of a mighty world 

 Is rounding into form." 



What the final form of that western world is likely to 

 be, we may infer from the forces which are at work 

 shaping it. How do they compare with the influences 

 which molded New England institutions? The Pilgrim 

 Fathers sought these shores not simply as refugees, but 

 also as missionaries, " A great hope and inward zeal 

 they had of laying some good foundation (or, at least, to 

 make some way thereunto) for propagating and advanc- 

 ing the Gospel of the Kingdom of Christ in those remote 

 parts of the world." They came not for gold; but for 

 conscience' sake and souFs sake. The early settlers of 

 New England were sufficiently homogeneous to enable 

 them to labor harmoniously and successfully to make 

 religion, learning, liberty and law, the four corner-stones 

 of their civilization. New England ideas gave form to 

 the national government, and shaped the institutions of 

 the Middle States; but does any one suppose they are 

 dominant to-day in the great territories of the West? Is 

 there no danger that an alien and materialistic civiliza- 

 tion will spring up in the Rocky Mountains and beyond? 



