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future by just analogy with the past. And the inimitable imagery and
beauty with which the thought is expressed, joined to the conception
itself, render it one of the most striking passages in our language.

On the day of the Declaration of Independence our illustrious fathers
performed the first scene in the last great act of this drama; one in
real importance infinitely exceeding that for which the great English
poet invokes

"A muse of fire, ...
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!"

The Muse inspiring our fathers was the Genius of Liberty, all on fire
with a sense of oppression, and a resolution to throw it off; the whole
world was the stage, and higher characters than princes trod it; and,
instead of monarchs, countries and nations and the age beheld the
swelling scene. How well the characters were cast, and how well each
acted his part, and what emotions the whole performance excited, let
history, now and hereafter, tell.

At a subsequent period, but before the Declaration of Independence, the
Bishop of St. Asaph published a discourse, in which the following
remarkable passages are found:--

"It is difficult for man to look into the destiny of future ages;
the designs of Providence are vast and complicated, and our own
powers are too narrow to admit of much satisfaction to our
curiosity. But when we see many great and powerful causes
constantly at work, we cannot doubt of their producing
proportionable effects.

"The colonies in North America have not only taken root and
acquired strength, _but seem hastening with an accelerated progress
to such a powerful state as may introduce a new and important
change in human affairs_.

"Descended from ancestors of the most improved and enlightened part
of the Old World, they receive, as it were by inheritance, all the
improvements and discoveries of their mother country. And it
happens fortunately for them to commence their flourishing state at
a time when the human understanding has attained to the free use of
its powers, and has learned to act with vigor and certainty. They
may avail themselves, not only of the experience and industry, but
even of the errors and mistakes, of former days. Let it be
considered for how many ages a great part of the world appears not
to have thought at all; how many m