might pour forth over the humbled pride of the nation which had devastated his lands and people: —
| “ | Oh, could their ancient Incas rise again, |
| How would they take up Israel's taunting strain! | |
| ‘Art thou too fallen, Iberia? Do we see | |
| The robber and the murderer weak as we? | |
| Thou, that hast wasted earth, and dared despise | |
| Alike the wrath and mercy of the skies, | |
| Thy pomp is in the grave, thy glory laid | |
| Low in the pits thine avarice has made. | |
| We come with joy from our eternal rest, | |
| To see the oppressor in his turn oppressed!’ ”[1] |
The stupendous and still unfinished drama of which this
continent, as involving the fate of its original peoples, has
afforded the vastly extended stage, with all its grandeur,
richness, gloom, and sombreness of scenery and incident,
conforms to the severest principles laid down for tragic art.
There is unity in the plot; and its development through
changing characters, with their entrances and their exits,
shifting in garb and dialogue as they act their parts, leads
on to what we still wait for as the event of destiny. The
drama has five acts. The first, which we have rehearsed,
is that of Spain and the natives of this continent. The
second act brings the French on the stage, with a milder
and more genial spirit and purpose, though still as the
agents of much misery to the red men alike as their allies
or their enemies. The third act is filled with the conflicts
between the French and English, — the natives and their
lands being the stake at hazard. The fourth act presents
Great Britain in the war for independence or subjection
with her colonies, each of the contesting parties arraying
on its side hostile bands of the savages. The fifth act,
still drawing out its movement, quickened in earnestness
and activity rather than growing wearisome and lagging
after centuries of progress, exhibits our National Government,
with the legacy of struggle in its hands, charged to
- ↑ Cowper's "Charity."
