THE ISTHMUS OF FANAMA. 107 



sand Americans every year, and not at once be 

 seized upon and made the garden of the world ? 



One of the greatest results attending the intro- 

 duction of steam communication between different 

 countries, though a result not immediately contem- 

 plated in their establishment, is that of breaking 

 clown the barriers which exist between different na- 

 tions, familiarizing them with each other's habits 

 and customs, and diffusing intelligence and a know- 

 ledge of the mechanical and agricultural arts and 

 sciences. Within a few years the world has under- 

 gone a very great change in this respect, and in the 

 future we may justly anticipate the time — that good 

 time — when the different nations of the earth shall 

 have become so intermingled with each other that 

 we shall know no people as foreigners — no national 

 habits and customs that are strictly peculiar — and 

 religious intolerance and superstition shall no longer 

 rear their barriers to true progress, and the great 

 element of religious truth shall be planted every- 

 where ; and thus he who establishes a line of 

 steamships between two distant countries, will be 

 found practically the most successful missionary. 



