that in which the broad generalizations
of genius in the materials of science surpass the poor conceptions that
the wild Australian must almost utter audibly in his own ear to realize
that he at all possesses them.

In the 5,865 years which the most unquestioned belief accords to the
history of man on our planet, could we suppose the average duration of
life throughout equal to that of a generation now, there would have been
time for 177 generations of working, planning, inventive men--of men
desiring at each period the best they could conceive of, and framing the
best schemes they were capable of to attain it. Here has been space for
the slow rise and fall of nation after nation,--vast solitary tides
heaving at long intervals the face of a wide, living, sullen sea: and
history reports that the nations have actually risen, flourished, and
fallen. Here has been space for exquisite triumphs of art; for the late
birth, and nevertheless large progress, of the sciences concerned about
phenomena of physical nature; the art triumphs have been achieved, and
the germs of sciences are in our possession. Here has been space for the
multiplication, upon all imaginable themes, of books, to a number and
volume utterly beyond the powers of the most prolonged and assiduous
life even to peruse; and the books crowd our alcoves, and meet us
wherever men are wont to make their abode or transit. Here has been
space for the organization, though so long impracticable and late
conceived, of a system of daily diffusion of intelligence, and to such a
pitch as almost to bring the world freshly photographed to our eyes with
each returning sun; and, lo! the photographs are here; they await us at
the breakfast or the counting table. Here has been space for the
springing up among the people, at distances of years or centuries, of
profound educating intellects, marked by clear insight, large human
love, and patient self-sacrifice, and contributing to the growth of
humanity by worthy examples, and by propounding successively more and
more rational modes for the informing and developing of youthful minds;
and, see! Confucius, Socrates and Plato, Petrarch, Bacon, Comenius,
Pestalozzi, Pere Girard, Arnold of Rugby, and Horace Mann--to make no
mention of many co-laborers among the dead, and earnest successors among
the living--stepping from their niches in the vanishing corridors of
history, lay at our feet the treasures accumulated through their patient
a