Lossing's History of the United States of America - From the Aboriginal Times to the Present Day #270750

It is only yesterday, as it were, in the calendar of the earth's existence, when the fact was first made known to modern men, that our planet was a globe, and that in the waters between the western coasts of Europe and Africa and the eastern coasts of Asia, there lay a vast continent teeming with life, wealth, and beauty. For generations after that discovery, the Continent was wrapped in profound mystery, the subject of wild conjecture and tales of wonder. Then newly-awakened moral forces impelled brave and earnest men and women to venture across the Atlantic Ocean and establish homes in the virgin wilderness. So began the heroic age of our Republic, at which period were planted the germs of the great commonwealths that compose the United States nation.