one of the finest provinces in the known world for fishing, masts, harbors.[759] Already the Latin provinces had begun to string a chain of citadels westward along the banks of the St. Lawrence and the borders of the lakes to the valley of the Mississippi, ——“toppling round the dreary west A looming bastion fringed with fire.” The Spaniard was in Florida.[760] The Dutchman smoked his pipe on the banks of the Hudson.[761] English adventurers held Virginia.[762] The Pilgrims had clutched New England. Labor was vocal on every hill-side; the whole continent began to echo to the civilizing stroke of the woodman’s axe. CHAPTER XXVI. THE ADVANCE OF CIVILIZATION. “So work the honey-bees— Creatures that, by a rule of nature, teach The art of order to a peopled kingdom. They have a head and officers of sorts, Where some, like magistrates, correct at home; Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad; Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings, Make boot upon the summer’s velvet buds; Which pillage they with merry march bring home To the tent royal of their emperor, Who, busied in his tent, surveys The singing mason building roofs of gold; The civil citizens kneading up the honey; The poor mechanic porters crowding in Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate; The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum, Delivering o’er to executors pale The lazy, yawning drone.” SHAKSPEARE’S _Henry V_. From the year 1630—before that, but more perceptibly after—the advancing march of civilization carried all before it in New England. There were, indeed, occasional oscillations in its career of triumph; but always, when its genius seemed to balk, it ended by bearing off a trophy. At Plymouth, all the social and religious forces had “settled down into fixed ways.” Justice was administered, order was preserved, education was provided for.[763] The old town began to prosper. The busy hum of men and the laughter of successful trade echoed through the streets; and Bradford wrote, “Though the partners have been plunged into great engagements and oppressed with unjust debts, yet the Lord has prospered our traffic so that our labor is not for naught. The people of this plantation begin to grow in their outward estates, by reason of the flowing of many into the province, especially into the settlements on Massachusetts Bay; by which means corn and cattle have risen to a great price, whereby some are much enriched, while commodities grow plentiful.”[764]