extent the
agricultural capabilities which make good subsistence possible, there
would have been no Boston, no Lynn, no Lowell, no New Bedford, no
healthy or wealthy civilization of any kind, until the Pilgrim
civilization had changed its base. It may be generally laid down that
the men who leave home for truth's sake exile themselves as much for the
privilege to mere opportunity of living truly.

New York was not even in the first place settled by enthusiasts. Trade
with the savages, nice little farms at Haarlem, a seat among the
burgomasters, the feast of St. Nicholas, pipes and Schiedam, a vessel
now and then in the year bringing over letters of affection ripened by a
six months' voyage, some little ventures, and two or three new
colonists,--these were the joys which allured the earliest New-Yorkers
to the island now swarming from end to end with almost national
vitalities. Not until 1836, when the Italian Opera was first domiciled
in New York, on the corner of Leonard and Church Streets, could the
second era of metropolitan life be said fully to have set in there,--the
era when people flow toward a city for the culture as well as the
livelihood which it offers them. About the same time American studios
began to be thronged with American picture-buyers; and there is no need
of referring to the rapid advance of American literature, and the wide
popularization of luxuries, dating from that period.

Long prior to that, New York was growing with giant vitality. She
possesses, as every great city must possess preeminent advantages for
the support of a vast population and the employment of immense
industries. If she could not feed a million of men better than Norfolk,
Norfolk would be New York and New York Norfolk. If the products of the
world were not more economically exchanged across her counter than over
that of Baltimore, Baltimore would need to set about building shelter
for half a million more heads than sleep there to-night. Perth Amboy was
at one time a prominent rival of New York in the struggle for the
position of the American Metropolis, and is not New York only because
Nature said No!

Let us invite the map to help us in our investigation of New York's
claim to the metropolitan rank. There are three chief requisites for the
chief city of every nation. It must be the city in easiest communication
with other countries,--on the sea-coast, if there be a good harbor
there, or on some stream debouching into the