Here are
the fields, there are the men. The dominant power on the Pacific Ocean
must necessarily exert a controlling influence in the affairs of Asia.
The Roman empire is regarded, perhaps not unjustly, as the most imposing
of all human political creations. Italy extended her rule across the
eastern and western basins of the Mediterranean Sea, from the confines
of Parthia to Spain. A similar central, but far grander, position is
occupied by the American continent. The partitions of an interior and
narrow sea are replaced by the two great oceans. But, since history ever
repeats itself, the maxims that guided the policy of Rome in her advance
to sovereignty are not without application here. Her mistakes may be
monitions to us.
A great, a homogeneous, and yet an active people, having strength and
security in its political institutions, may look forward to a career of
glory. It may, without offense, seek to render its life memorable in the
annals of the human race.
* * * * *
=_James Russell Lowell, 1810-._= (Manual, pp. 503, 520.)
From "Among my Books."
=_217._= NEW ENGLAND TWO CENTURIES AGO.
I have little sympathy with declaimers about the Pilgrim Fathers, who
look upon them all as men of grand conceptions and superhuman foresight.
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