MAUDSLEY ON HEREDITARY DESCENT. 31 



could be modulated somewhat, if the patriotism in it 

 could be retained, and adequate respect for the 

 canons of both taste and morals infused into it, no 

 one would object to the distinctively American traits 

 in his uncouth anthems. 



Two oceans, and many rivers and lakes and moun- 

 tain-ranges, have yet to lift up their voices in Ameri- 

 can song. We have still to learn what the great 

 Sierras can do for literature, and what the Yosemite 

 can say to our poets. On the barren shore of New 

 England our harp has been struck in presence of 

 the Atlantic and of historic memories. England is 

 in sight from Boston, but not from the Yosemite. 

 America catches the proper key-note for her harp 

 only when she takes her seat on the ridge of the 

 continent, the Rocky Mountains and the Andes, 

 and listens to those coming ages of which the noise 

 as yet is but an obscure rustle. She has reasons for 

 believing that ultimately American audiences will be 

 as large as all the rest of the world. She sits on the 

 heights of the Sierras, and remembers that she has 

 eleven million square miles of arable land in North 

 and South America, while all Europe, Asia, and Africa 

 together have only ten million square miles through 

 which the plough can be profitably passed. Although 

 less than half the size of the Old World, this conti- 

 nent, as scholars assure us, can maintain a larger 

 population than the Old. The Rocky Mountains 

 and the Andes, as a central line among the inhab- 

 itants of the crowded age of the planet, are likely 

 to be the heights from which ultimately the greatest 



