If he awakens his attention to a consideration of the progress of
intellectual and ethical pursuits, if he advert to the prolific
demonstrations which surround him for the advancement of knowledge,
literary and scientific, moral and religious, the indomitable spirit of
the times strikes him with more than logical conviction. The beneficence
and humanity of his countrymen may be pointed out by contemplating her
noble free schools, her vast hospitals and asylums for the alleviation
of physical distress and mental infirmities; with the reflection that
all these are the triumphs of a self-governed people, accomplished
within the limited memory of an ordinary life. Should reading enlarge
the scope of his knowledge, let him study the times of the old Dutch
Governors, when the Ogdens erected the first church in the fort of New
Amsterdam, in 1642, and then survey the vast panoramic view around him
of the two hundred and fifty and more edifices, now consecrated to the
solemnities of religious devotion. It imparts gratification to know that
the old Bible which was used in that primary church of Van Twiller is
still preserved by a descendant of the builder, a precious relic of the
property of the older period, and of the devotional impulse of those
early progenitors.
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