ADDRESS. 15 



greatest amount of value, and the wildest speculations of the 

 theorist are more than equalled by the reality. 



It has not for years been difficult to discern the signs of the 

 times. The watchword has been " onward !" and wonders 

 exceeding the prodigies of ancient times have been the result. 

 For the seven of olden time we can show an hundred, and these 

 are but the earnest of our future achievements. How many dis- 

 tinguished individuals who have passed away, and like the pro- 

 phets and kings of the Psalmist, have 



" died without the sight;" 



how many of our now deceased patriots, who saw with a super- 

 human prescience the rising glories of the western world at the 

 period of its greatest gloom and adversity, have lamented that it 

 was their lot to live when they did, and that it was not permitted 

 them to antedate their existence, and behold the fruit of the 

 garden they had planted, and fostered with their treasures and 

 their blood ! If such were their regrets, how great should be 

 our exultation that Providence has cast our lines in such pleasant 

 places, in such auspicious times, that to us it has been given to 

 view the consummation of that national greatness and prosperity 

 so confidently foretold ; and that we see with our mortal eyes the 

 development of that magnificent drama thus glowingly announced 

 by a gifted mind : 



" Westward the star of empire takes its way j 



The first four acts already past, 

 The fifth shall close the drama with the day ; 



Time's noblest offspring is the last !" 



If this hasty sketch of our possessions, prospects, and resources, 

 be not overdrawn, and we feel confident that it is not, surely it 

 will not be out of place to pause a moment in our onward career, 

 and inquire what we have done as a nation to add to the accu- 



