the following forcible lines, pointed out the then future position of
America, and its connection with preceding empires.

"Westward the course of empire takes its way;
The four first acts already past,
A fifth shall close the drama with the day;
Time's noblest offspring is the last."

By the "four first acts already past," the bishop had undoubted
reference to the four universal kingdoms of Daniel's prophecy. A fifth
great power, the noblest and the last, was, according to his poem, to
arise this side the Atlantic, and here close the drama of time, as the
day here ends its circuit.

To what part of the American continent shall we look for the power in
question? To the most powerful and prominent nation certainly. This is
so self-evident that we need not stop to pass in review the frozen
fragments of humanity on the north of us, nor the weak, superstitious,
semi-barbarous, revolutionary, and uninfluential kingdoms to the south
of us. No; we come to the United States, and here we are held. To this
nation the question of the location of the two-horned beast
undeviatingly leads us.

As an objection to this view, it may occur to some minds that the
two-horned beast exercises all the power of the first beast before him
(Greek [Greek: enopion], literally, before his eyes) and does wonders in
his sight; and how can the United States, separated by an ocean from
European kingdoms, hold such an intimate relation to them? We answer,
Space and time are annihilated by the telegraph. Through the Atlantic
cable (an enterprise which, by the way, owes its origin to the United