But a total subversion of a long established government is like an earthquake, that not only overturns the works of man, but changes the wonted course and operation of the very elements; makes a gulf in the midst of a fertile plain, casts a mountain into a lake, and in line, produces such devastation as it is not in the power of man to remedy. Indeed, it is too obvious that, even in our own country, that fire which produced the destruction of the monarchy, still glows among the ashes of extinguished factions; but that portion of the community who carried with them across the Atlantic, the repugnance to submission, which grew out of an indefinite love of liberty, might be compared to the Persian Magi. Like them, when forced to fly from their native country, they carried with them a portion of the hallowed fire, which continued to be the object of their secret worship. Those who look upon the revolution, of which this spirit was the prime mover, as tending to advance the general happiness, no doubt consider these opinions as a rich inheritance, productive of the best effects. Many wise and worthy persons have thought and still continue to think so. There is as yet no room for decision, the experiment not being completed. Their mode of government, anomalous, and hitherto inefficient, has not yet acquired the firmness of cohesion, or the decisive tone of authority. The birth of this great empire is a phenomenon in the history of mankind. There is nothing like it in reality or fable, but the birth of Minerva, who proceeded full armed and full grown out of the head of the thunderer. Population, arts, sciences, and laws, extension of territory, and establishment of power, have been gradual and progressive in other countries, where the current of dominion went on increasing as it flowed, by conquests or other acquisitions, which it swallowed like rivulets in its course; but here it burst forth like a torrent, spreading itself at once into an expanse, vast as their own Superior lake, before the eyes of the passing generation which witnessed its birth. Yet it is wonderful how little talent or intellectual pre-eminence of any kind has appeared in this new-born world, which seems already old in worldly craft, and whose children are indeed “wiser in their generation than the children of light.” Self-interest, eagerly grasping at pecuniary advantages, seems to be the ruling principle of this great continent.