glowing deserts of africa shining in silvery and arid desolation the broad green belt of the atlantic now itself and then appears the deeper green of this immense luxuriant forest america with the achievements of three centuries of advancing struggling civilization barely to dot its eastern border and hardly in extent those in its which nature or rather the red man s annual has through many ages to hollow out by from amid the all embracing foliage shine forth with steady radiance with deep serenity the mirror hints toward like of the great lakes � the last surpassing in size and beauty � the slender threads of the father of waters and his far stretching are seen whose has known no parallel since while farther on the tremendous chains of the the rocky mountains heave up their and rugged sides through the surrounding seas of as if in grim and haughty defiance to the utmost fury of the lightning and the or in scornful exultation over the crouching world at their feet soon the broad placid surface of the vast pacific presents itself sprinkled with of deepest where flowers bloom and still the earth rolls on and every hour shall bring to view fresh to awaken the soul to a consciousness of the infinite to the of piety and the glory of the great supreme yet beyond doubt the central figure of this vast of creation around which all other and cluster and is man he is the genius � the lord of the it is his presence which gives significance and interest to the landscape which and beauty above and decay not in laughing nor rippling not in broad blue lakes nor foaming � not even in these vast forests with their depths their waving swelling expanse of surface their changing so green and now so golden � not in these � in any or all of them � does the soul of nature find utterance on no wild mountain or lone would the spirit gaze dwell with clinging earnestness but on the scenes of man s earliest most momentous with nature with destiny or with his own blinding evil passions � on the narrow where th the gathered might of a continent � the battle field where a world was lost and won � aa the solitude wherein rome human life over th fading wreck of her grandeur and her power or the wintry desolation wherein gray haired amid the ruins of her once towers and temples � the ashes of her self trampled into her brow by the iron heel of sixty generations of through all circumstances all events this truth presents itself that man s being is the essential fact his spirit the imparted vitality of the world human life how inspiring how boundless the theme sadly wildly has the poet sung of it � calmly has the historian traced its � earnestly gravely have the priest and the sage exposed and its errors from the birth of the race the nurse s story it � the scholar s � the s and from the cradle over which the young mother with a novel sensation of wondering delight to the around which all are melted in the brotherhood of a common sorrow this life of ours is a marvel and a poem are we in the country from that low cottage a youth is going forth with lofty heart to do and dare on the great battle field of manly adventure he has given ear to a father s counsel he has knelt to receive a mother s blessing he has smiled at the fears and regrets expressed by younger or hearts around him for a sanguine spirit him on and he sees already fortune and honors awaiting him in the distant city to which his eager footsteps tend not till the hour of parting has come and passed does he feel how heavy the chain he who � goes forth for years from all he loves on earth � not till the stately elms which the dear spot have waved their last mute adieu to his backward glances � not till the stream which was the companion of his boyish bent away from his rigid course and buried itself among the wooded hills does he feel that he has shaken hints toward like of the great lakes � the last surpassing in size and beauty � the slender threads of the father of waters and his far stretching are seen whose has known no parallel since while farther on the tremendous chains of the the rocky mountains heave up their and rugged sides through the surrounding seas of as if in grim and haughty defiance to the utmost fury of the lightning and the or in scornful exultation over the crouching world at their feet soon the broad placid surface of the vast pacific presents itself sprinkled with of deepest where flowers bloom and still the earth rolls on and every hour shall bring to view fresh to awaken the soul to a consciousness of the infinite to the of piety and the glory of the great supreme yet beyond doubt the central figure of this vast of creation around which all other and cluster and is man he is the genius � the lord of the it is his presence which gives significance and interest to the landscape which and beauty above and decay not in laughing nor rippling not in broad blue lakes nor foaming � not even in these vast eternal forests with their depths their waving swelling expanse of surface their changing so green and now so not in these � in any or all of them � does the soul of nature find utterance on no wild mountain or lone would the spirit gaze dwell with clinging earnestness but on the scenes of man s earliest most momentous with nature with destiny or with his own blinding evil passions � 