of great Lakes, inland seas of fresh water, of which man can drink while he sails over them—a pleasant thought—so that none shall ever die of thirst, while far from land on these waters. See its two great mountain ranges, with that wide and rich valley of the Mississippi, reposing between them, destined hereafter to be the happy abode of millions. Its sunny clime, too, and clear skies, and soft southern breezes! And now, as it rolls away, we have reached its western verge. Here is California, the true El Dorado, the Golden Land. Here, in the farthest comer of the globe, the last to be reached by man in his westward progress, has the Creator heaped up his richest treasures, ages ago deposited, and lying ready for man's use when the fit time should come. And does not the time of the revealing of these earthly riches seem intended, in the workings of Divine Providence, to accord in a manner with that of the increase of mental and spiritual wealth, now taking place in the world,—when light and knowledge are becoming spread far and wide, and through all classes, in a degree never before known? when men's minds are fast opening to the perception and reception of pure spiritual truth,—and, still better, when their hearts seem to be softening and warming towards each other, and thoughts and feelings of harmony, union, and brotherly affection to be kindling and spreading from man to man and nation to nation, giving a prediction and a foretaste of the reign of universal peace—a new Golden Age?
The wide Pacific now stretches beneath us,—away, away, till it touches the Eastern World, covering with its vast sheet of waters nearly one half of the earth's circumference, and separating the Western continent
