Nor was it merely in such outward demonstrations that the public enthusiasm showed itself. The feeling struck deeper, and reached all minds. While the people shouted and cannon roared, sober and thoughtful men pondered on the change that was being wrought in the earth. Business men reasoned how it would affect the commerce of the world, while the philanthropic regarded it as the forerunner of an age of universal peace. The first message flashed across the sea--even before that of the Queen--had been one of religious exultation. It was from the Directors in Great Britain to those on this side the Atlantic, and, simply reciting the fact that Europe and America were united by telegraph, at once broke into a strain of religious rapture, echoing the song of the angels over a Saviour's birth: "Glory to God in the highest; on earth, peace, good-will toward men." Poetry at once caught up the strain. The event became the theme of innumerable odes and hymns, of which it must be said that, whatever their merit as poetry, their spirit at least was noble, celebrating the event chiefly as promoting the brotherhood of the human family. The key-note was struck in such lines as these: 'Tis done! the angry sea consents, The nations stand no more apart, With claspèd hands the continents Feel throbbings of each other's heart. Speed, speed the cable; let it run A loving girdle round the earth, Till all the nations 'neath the sun Shall be as brothers of one hearth; As brothers pledging, hand in hand, One freedom for the world abroad, One commerce over every land, One language and one God.