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THE MATERIAL UNIVERSE.
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scarcely lose sight of them at all; some portion of its living power and motion will be always visible, though the body itself be long gone from view. A great work, truly, and influence over this globe has Providence assigned to that little centre; may her part be faithfully performed, and for the world's good and happiness, as well as to her own glory! And note, now, the position of this nation; and mark the Divine wisdom and fore-sight, even in the arrangement and form of the various portions of land that constitute the earth's surface, and by what simple means the most remarkable and extensive effects are produced. Had the place occupied by this people been any other than an island, and that a comparatively small one, their influence on the world and its destinies would not, in all probability, have been at all such as it has already been, and promises to be in the future. Situated on an island, they have been obliged, for self-support and self-protection, to become a maritime nation; and their ships, thus sent forth first from necessity, went further and farther, till they explored the world, and took possession of new lands in distant parts. Then, in consequence of the narrowness of territory at home, a stream of emigrants has gone forth to people those new countries and found great nations; so that, in the long future, the whole world and all humanity will feel strongly the influence of the Anglo-Saxon race, their language and their laws.

And now that British Isle, and the Emerald one, too, have rolled away from beneath us, and we hang over the blue ocean, this wide waste of waters, stretching away and away beyond sight, on all sides. This vast, and, till within a few centuries, impassible wilderness of waves, has not been spread out here by the great