216 THE ANGLO-SAXOX AND THE WORLD'S FUTURE. 



of the continent is ours. In 1880, the United States 

 had ah'eady become the home of more than one-half of 

 the Anglo-Saxon race ; and, if the computations already 

 given, are correct, a much larger proportion will be here 

 a hundred years hence. It has been shown that we 

 have room for at least a thousand millions. According 

 to the latest figures, there is in France (1886), a popula- 

 tion of 187 to the square mile; in Grermany (1885), 221.8; 

 in England and Wales (1889), 498; in Belgium (1888), 

 530; in the United States (1890)— not including Alaska— 

 21. If pur population were as dense as that of France, 

 we should have, this side of Alaska, 555,000,000; if as 

 dense as that of Germany, 658, 000, 000; if as dense as that 

 of England and Wales, 1,452,000,000; if as dense as that 

 of Belgium 1,574,000,000, or more than the present esti- 

 mated population of the globe. 



And we are to have not only the larger i^ortion of 

 the Anglo-Saxon race, but we may reasonably expect to 

 develop the highest type of Anglo-Saxon civilization. 

 If human progress follows a law of development, if 



"Time's noblest offspring is the last," 



our civilization should be the noblest ; for we are 



" The heirs of all the ages in the foremost files of time," 



and not only do we occupy the latitude of power, but 

 our land is the last to be occupied in that latitude. 

 There is no other virgin soil in the North Temperate 

 Zone. If the consummation of human progress is not 

 to be looked for here, if there is yet to flower a higher 

 civilization, where is the soil that is to produce it? 

 Whipple says:^ "There has never been a great mi- 

 gration that did not result in a new form of national 

 genius." Our national genius is Anglo-Saxon, but not 

 English, its distinctive type is the result of a finer 

 nervous organization, which is certainly being devel- 



1 Atlantic for October, 1858. 



