32 



THE USES OF THE CAMEL. 



Greece," with a touching sadness that partakes of the sublime, 

 suggests the possibility of a coming period, " when civilization 

 and knowledfice shall have fixed their abode in some distant con- 

 tinent, and the sceptre shall have passed away from England; 

 when, perhaps, travellers from distant regions shall in vain 

 labor to decipher, on some mouldering pedestal, the name of 

 her proudest chief; shall hear savage hymns chanted to some 

 misshapen idol over the ruined dome of her proudest temple, 

 and shall see a single naked fisherman wash his nets in the 

 river of ten thousand masts." 



This is the poetical foreshadowing of a fact already in pro- 

 cess of being accomplished. A great continental empire is 

 growing up here, with the Rocky Mountains for its massive 

 and towering centre. Let us follow up the fancy of Macaulay 

 and divest it of its gloom. Let us imagine some future traveller, 

 standing upon our topmost central peak, gazing on either hand 

 upon the wide expanse^ of mountain, valley, and broad sweep- 

 ing plain, peopled with a healthy, hardy race, living near their 

 mother earth, and drawing vigorous sustenance from her ample 

 bosom ; inheritors of earth's last, best civilization, yet possessing 

 the simple tastes and primitive habits of the patriarchs; with 

 sti'eams of travel flowing in all directions, the iron horse rush- 

 ing along the narrow ribbon of his appointed course, the plains 

 whitened with tented wagons, and, coming from farther dis- 

 tances along their broader roads, caravans of camels — and he 

 shall behold a mighty and Heaven-favored land, fair to look 

 upon, chastened and purified, within its wide realm a compe- 

 tence and a home for the migratory hosts from every clime, 

 and throughout all its radiant borders Freedom forevermoke. 



