he reader to look at these expressions side by side: "Coming
up out of the earth," "coming forth from vacancy," "emerging amid the
silence of the earth," "like a silent seed we grew into empire," "mighty
regions" secured by "peaceful conquest." The first is from the prophet,
stating what would be when the two-horned beast should arise; the others
are from political writers, telling what has been in the history of our
own government. Can any one fail to see that the last four are exactly
synonymous with the first, and that they record a complete
accomplishment of the prediction? And what is not a little remarkable,
those who have thus recorded the fulfillment have, without any reference
to prophecy, used the very figure which the prophet employed. These men,
therefore, being judges--men of large and cultivated minds, and whose
powers of discernment all will acknowledge to be sufficiently clear--it
is certain that the particular manner in which the United States have
arisen, answers most strikingly to the development of the symbol under
consideration.

We now extend the inquiry a step further: Have the United States "come
up" in a manner to fulfill the prophecy? Has their progress been
sufficiently great and sufficiently rapid to corresponds to that visible
and perceptible growth which John saw in the two-horned beast?

Every person whose reading is ordinarily extensive, has something of an
idea of what the United States are to-day; he likewise has an idea, so
far as words can convey it to his mind, of what they were at the
commencement of their history. The only object, then, in presenting
statistics and testimony on this point, is to show that our rapid growth
has struck mankind with the wonder of a constant miracle.

Said Emile de Girardin, in _La Liberte_ (1868):--

"The population of America, not thinned by any conscription,
multiplies with prodigious rapidity, and the day may before [long
be] seen, when they will number sixty or eighty millions of souls.
This _parvenu_ [one recently risen to notice] is aware of his
importance and destiny. Hear him proudly exclaim, 'America for
Americans!' See him promising his alliance to Russia; and we see
that power which well knows what force is, grasp the hand of this
giant of yesterday.

"In view of his _unparalleled progress and combination_, what are
the little toys with which we vex ourselves in Europe? What is this