iiig again upon tlie death of Henry into factional politics 

 and religious strife, she probably and not Anglo-Saxon 

 nations would have controlled the larger destinies and 

 development of this continent. 



It was a time of new beginnings when mighty rivers of 

 future history were gathering their first waters and es- 

 tablishing their yet doubtful course. France, through 

 the enterprise and adventurous spirit of the early 

 mariners and nobles on her western coasts, fronting the 

 Atlantic, won the first advantage in the occupation of the 

 new continent discovered on its opposite shores ; she lost 

 her opportunity through the triumph of reactionary poli- 

 tics and selfish privilege which culminated in the French 

 Eevolution's fearful travail after thwarting for genera- 

 tions the best energies of the nation and destroying 

 largely or sending into exile her best blood. 



The French Dominion 



Francis Parkman 

 The French dominion is a memory of the past; and 

 when we evoke its departed shades, they rise upon us 

 from their graves in strange, romantic guise. Again 

 their ghostly camp-fires seem to burn, and the fitful light 

 is cast around on lord and vassal and black-robed priest, 

 mingled with wild forms of savage warriors, knit in close 

 fellowship on the same stern errand. A boundless vision 

 grows upon us; an untamed continent; vast wastes of 

 forest verdure ; mountains silent in primeval sleep ; river, 

 lake, and glimmering pool; wilderness oceans mingling 

 with the sky. Such was the domain which France con- 

 quered for Civilization. Plumed helmets gleamed in the 

 shade of its forests, priestly vestments in its dens and 

 fastnesses of ancient barbarism. Men steeped in antique 

 learning, pale with the close breath of the cloister, here 

 spent the noon and evening of their lives, ruled savage 

 hordes with a mild, parental sway, and stood serene be- 

 fore the direst shapes of death. Men of courtly nurture, 



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