_Washington Irving_ ON A PORTRAIT OF COLUMBUS Was this his face, and these the finding eyes That plucked a new world from the rolling seas? Who, serving Christ, whom most he sought to please, Willed the great vision till he saw arise Man's other home and earthly paradise-- His early thought since first with stalwart knees He pushed the boat from his young olive trees, And sailed to wrest the secret of the skies. He on the waters dared to set his feet, And through believing planted earth's last race. What faith in man must in our new world beat, Thinking how once he saw before his face The west and all the host of stars retreat Into the silent infinite of space! _George Edward Woodberry_ Of no use are the men who study to do exactly as was done before, who can never understand that today is a new day. There never was such a combination as this of ours, and the rules to meet it are not set down in any history. We want men of original perception and original action, who can open their eyes wider than to a nationality--namely, to considerations of benefit to the human race--can act in the interest of civilization; men of elastic, men of moral mind, who can live in the moment and take a step forward. Columbus was no backward-creeping crab, nor was Martin Luther, nor John Adams, nor Patrick Henry, nor Thomas Jefferson; and the Genius or Destiny of America is no log or sluggard, but a man incessantly advancing, as the shadow on the dial's face, or the heavenly body by whose light it is marked. _Ralph Waldo Emerson_ ADDRESS TO AMERICA (_From a Commencement Poem, Dartmouth College. 1872_) As a strong bird on pinions free, Joyous, the amplest spaces heavenward cleaving, One song, America, before I go, I'd sing, o'er all the rest, with trumpet sound, For thee, the Future. Sail--sail thy best, Ship of Democracy! Of value is thy freight--'tis not the Present only, The Past is also stored in thee! Thou holdest not the venture of thyself alone-- Not of thy western continent alone; Earth's résumé entire floats on thy keel, O Ship-- Is steadied by thy spars. With thee Time voyages in trust, The antecedent nations sink or swim with thee; With all their ancient struggles, martyrs, heroes, epics, wars, Thou bears't the other continents; Theirs, theirs as much as thine, the destination-port triumphant, Steer, steer with good strong hand and wary eye-- O helmsman--thou carryest great companions, Venerable, priestly Asia sails this day with thee, And royal, feudal Europe sails with thee. _Walt Whitman_ AMERICA