the _Vindicator_, and his friends earnestly advised him to compromise
the matter with a view of bringing more powerful energies to the same
task in a wider field.

The first number of the new journal appeared on the 12th of October,
1842. It had been announced under auspices calculated to ensure its
success, but its unexpected ability, the ground it broke in the national
policy, and the vast intellectual resources it developed eclipsed the
prestige under which it was deemed necessary to usher it into existence.
It was at once a proof of greater powers than the country had yet
witnessed, and a prophecy of a different fate from what she hoped for.
The aims, the logic, the very language of factious diplomacy were
eschewed. It seemed as if a light had streamed down from heaven, fresh
from God, to give the people hope, comfort and assurance. The genius of
Davis seized the opportunity as though he were His deputed messenger in
the great work of regeneration. For the first time men awoke to the
consciousness of what they were or might be. Harnessed to the triumphant
car of one gigantic intellect, they had forgotten the dignity of their
own nature, and were astonished to find how transcendant its resources
and sufficient its strength. The publication of the _Nation_ was really
an epoch which marked a wonderful change, and from that day forth
self-reliance and self-respect began to take the place of grateful but
stultified obedience and blind trust.

The change became more marked as the publication proceeded. In speech,
article, song and essay, the spell of Davis's extraordinary genius and
embracing love was felt. Historic memories, forgotten stories, fragments
of tradition, the cromlech on the mountain and the fossil in the bog
supplied him substance and spirit wherewith to mould and animate
nationality. Native art, valour, virtue and glory seemed to grow under