America, When It Became Known To Europeans,

Here Society Is Reduced To Its Original Elements, The Whole Fabric Of Art And Conventionality Is Struck Rudely To Pieces, And Men Find Themselves Suddenly Brought Back To The Wants And Resources Of Their Original Natures.

If Any Pale Student, Glued To His Desk, Here Seek An Apology For A Way Of Life Whose Natural Fruits Is That Pallid And Emasculate Scholarship Of Which New England Has Had Too Many Examples, It Will Be Far Better That This Sketch Had Not Been Written. For The Student There Is, In Its Season, No Better Place Than The Saddle, And No Better Companion Than The Rifle Or The Oar.

America Was Still A Land Of Wonder. The Ancient Spell Still Hung Unbroken Over The Wild, Vast World Of Mystery Beyond The Sea,-a Land Of Romance, Adventure, And Gold.

Versailles Was A Gulf Into Which The Labor Of France Poured Its Earnings; And It Was Never Full.

The Monk, The Inquisitor, And The Jesuit Were Lords Of Spain,- Sovereigns Of Her Sovereign, For They Had Formed The Dark And Narrow Mind Of That Tyrannical Recluse. They Had Formed The Minds Of Her People, Quenched In Blood Every Spark Of Rising Heresy, And Given Over A Noble Nation To A Bigotry Blind And Inexorable As The Doom Of Fate. Linked With Pride, Ambition, Avarice, Every Passion Of A Rich, Strong Nature, Potent For Good And Ill, It Made The Spaniard Of That Day A Scourge As Dire As Ever Fell On Man.