known. But it remains for the student to endeavor to solve and declare the
meaning of the familiar events; to state his view of their source and
their ultimate issue. In these volumes, I have taken the view that the
American nation is the embodiment and vehicle of a Divine purpose to
emancipate and enlighten the human race. Man is entering upon a new career
of spiritual freedom: he is to enjoy a hitherto unprecedented condition of
political, social and moral liberty--as distinguished from license, which
in truth is slavery. The stage for this grand evolution was fixed in the
Western Continent, and the pioneers who went thither were inspired with
the desire to escape from the thralldom of the past, and to nourish their
souls with that pure and exquisite freedom which can afford to ignore the
ease of the body, and all temporal luxuries, for the sake of that elixir
of immortality. This, according to my thinking, is the innermost core of
the American Idea; if you go deep enough into surface manifestations, you
will find it. It is what differentiates Americans from all other peoples;
it is what makes Americans out of emigrants; it is what draws the masses
of Europe hither, and makes their rulers fear and hate us. It may often,
and uniformly, happen that any given individual is unconscious of the
Spirit that moves within him; for it is the way of that Spirit to
subordinate its manifestations to its ends, knowing the frailty of
humanity. But it is there, and its gradual and cumulative results are seen
in the retrospect, and it may perhaps be divined as to the outline of some
of its future developments.

Some sort of recognition of the American Idea, and of the American
destiny, affords the only proper ground for American patriotism. We talk
of the size of our country, of its wealth and prosperity, of its physical
power, of its enlightenment; but if these things be all that we have to be
proud of, we have little. They are in truth but outward signs of a far
more precious possession within. We are the pioneers of the new Day, or we