"This old, old land, which men call new; This land as old as time is old." {123} CHAPTER XII. THE COLONIZATION OF ACADIA. ENGLAND'S DEVELOPMENT--REIGN OF ELIZABETH--INFLUENCE OF THE BIBLE--TYRANNY OF THE KINGS--JACQUES CARTIER--DISCOVERY OF THE ST. LAWRENCE--QUEBEC FOUNDED--ACADIA COLONIZED--TRANSFERRED TO ENGLAND--EXTRACTS FROM LONGFELLOW'S POEM--VIRGINIA SETTLED. In previous chapters we have traced the instrumentalities which God used in the unshackling of the minds of men from the superstitions of the past, and disciplining them for the reception of higher truths. We have seen how, amidst the rage of tyrants and in spite of the opposition of the powers of evil, society had gradually climbed to a loftier intellectual eminence than that to which she had attained in any previous age. The time had at length arrived, when, far from the jarring scenes of Europe's strife, a nation was to come into existence, earnest in its love of human liberty, and vigorous in the execution of its purposes--a nation, which should accomplish some of the mightiest achievements of the human race; and where, under the benign influences of its political institutions, and in the Lord's due time, the gospel should be again revealed and the Kingdom of God set up among the children of men. To rightly understand the history and character of an individual, we must know something of his parentage and the circumstances of his early life. Hence to understand the character of the American people, we must know something of their great national mother, the people of England. The defeat of the great Spanish armada delivered England from the control of continental Europe, and marked a critical epoch in her development. From that hour England's destiny {124} was fixed. She was to be the great protestant power. Her sphere of action was to be upon the seas. She was to take a leading part in the new world of the west. The time was coming when her commerce should surpass all the nations of ancient or modern times; but, above all, her language and literature were fast developing, by means of which her laws and influence would effect the remotest nations of the earth. Hitherto England had lagged behind in the intellectual development of Europe. In the single reign of Elizabeth she leaped to the first rank among the nations of the earth; nay more, she was to become the mother of nations. An impression, vague and shadowy indeed, but none the less real, penetrated the minds of the English people, that they were to be the repository of the divine will, and the executor of His purposes--that the blessings and prerogatives of ancient Israel, were to be their inheritance.