We now extend the inquiry a step further: Have the United States "come
up" in a manner to fulfill the prophecy? Has their progress been
sufficiently great and sufficiently rapid to corresponds to that visible
and perceptible growth which John saw in the two-horned beast?

Every person whose reading is ordinarily extensive, has something of an
idea of what the United States are to-day; he likewise has an idea, so
far as words can convey it to his mind, of what they were at the
commencement of their history. The only object, then, in presenting
statistics and testimony on this point, is to show that our rapid growth
has struck mankind with the wonder of a constant miracle.

Said Emile de Girardin, in _La Liberte_ (1868):--

"The population of America, not thinned by any conscription,
multiplies with prodigious rapidity, and the day may before [long
be] seen, when they will number sixty or eighty millions of souls.
This _parvenu_ [one recently risen to notice] is aware of his
importance and destiny. Hear him proudly exclaim, 'America for
Americans!' See him promising his alliance to Russia; and we see
that power which well knows what force is, grasp the hand of this
giant of yesterday.

"In view of his _unparalleled progress and combination_, what are
the little toys with which we vex ourselves in Europe? What is this
needle gun we are anxious to get from Prussia, that we may beat her
next year with it? Had we not better take from America the
principle of liberty she embodies, out of which have come her
citizen pride, her gigantic industry, and her formidable loyalty to