Then shall the soul thrill with a nobler
heroism than that of battle. Peaceful industry, with untold multitudes
of cheerful and beneficent laborers, shall be its gladsome token.
Literature, full of sympathy and comfort for the heart of man, shall
appear in garments of purer glory than she has yet assumed. Science
shall extend the bounds of knowledge and power, adding unimaginable
strength to the hands of men, opening innumerable resources in the earth
and revealing new secrets and harmonies in the skies.
The increasing beneficence and intelligence of our own day, the
broad-spread sympathy with suffering, the widening thoughts of men, the
longings of the heart for a higher condition on earth, the unfulfilled
promises of Christian progress are the auspicious auguries of this happy
future. As early voyagers over untried realms of waste we have already
observed the signs of land. The green and fresh red berries have floated
by our bark, the odors of the shore fan our faces, nay, we may seem to
descry the distant gleam of light, and hear from the more earnest
observers, as Columbus heard, after midnight from the masthead of the
Pinta, the joyful cry of "Land! Land!" and lo! a new world broke upon
his early morning gaze.
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