And
there are in the Pacific Ocean many rich and fertile spots where we
shall very soon see the same things going on.
It is not necessary to dwell upon such considerations as these. It is
enough to point to the general conclusion, that the work which the
English race began when it colonized North America is destined to go on
until every land on the earth's surface that is not already the seat of
an old civilization shall become English in its language, in its
political habits and traditions, and to a predominant extent in the
blood of its people. The day is at hand when, four-fifths of the human
race will trace its pedigree to English forefathers, as four-fifths of
the white people in the United States trace their pedigree to-day. The
race thus spread over both hemispheres, and from the rising to the
setting sun, will not fail to keep that sovereignty of the sea and that
commercial supremacy which it began to acquire when England first
stretched its arm across the Atlantic to the shores of Virginia and
Massachusetts. The language spoken by these great communities will not
be sundered into dialects like the language of the ancient Romans, but
perpetual intercommunication and the universal habit of reading and
writing will preserve its integrity; and the world's business will be
transacted by English-speaking people to so great an extent, that
whatever language any man may have learned in his infancy he will find
it necessary sooner or later to learn to express his thoughts in
English.
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