Arnold Guyot, in his book, "The Earth and Man,' in the spirit of a devout philosopher, calls our attention to the fact that the contour and relief of the continents of the earth, the shape of the dry land, is a divine prophecy of the development of the human race; and he laments that the word geography, in its limited and restricted sense, does not express the truth, and that the word geology was not at his service to express the science of the earth.

In a word, physical geography, calling our attention to the handwriting of the Creator in the material earth, forecasts the drama of humanity to be enacted on it. But what has all this to do with the subject, The condi tions and Prospects of Brazil ? Much every way, since it determines that that land shall be:

1. One and indivisible. 2. A healthy habitation.

3. A theatre for the congregating the families of the earth.

Any atlas of physical geography will show that Brazil is separated, as it were, from the rest of South America. See that great belt of green indicating the two great hydrographical systems, which surround Brazil as with broad arms, and consider that the slightest depression of the earth's surface would have left Brazil an island. It is said that in the rainy season you can pass from the headwaters of the confluents of the Amazon to the headwaters of the river La Plata in a Rob-Roy canoe. Consider the rivers, and you will have a foreordained answer to the surmise which has been raised in correspondence about Brazil, as to whether it can maintain its unity; as to whether Brazil will ever be divided into one, two or three nations. Its topography and configuration have predetermined the question. There is no chance for a division. You will see this by the way the waters run north and south from the vast water-shed, which embraces the region between 15° and 20° south latitude. Divide the country if you You cannot. No more than ours was to be divided. Secession was a rebellion against civil government not only, but it was a rebellion against divine law written on the earth, and therefore impossible. Brazil, by eternal determination, is to be one and undivided.

can.

But is it habitable? The question, "Is Brazil healthy, a healthy place for living?" arises, because it is a region of the earth of which we possess a very limited knowledge, acquired through our trade at the shipping ports merely; so that the information we have received of the healthfulness of some of those ports

has given us the impression we have of all Brazil; as though New Orleans were to be considered a type of the healthfulness of the United States.

Study the map, and you will realize that there is there prepared an immense theatre for the development of the drama of human life, since He, whose hands formed the dry land, has pushed up Brazil high towards heaven, so that even in the inter-tropical regions it is a “habitable part of the earth."

Physical geographers call our attention to yet another very significant fact. They tell us that the Old hemisphere, by the contour of it, foreordained the separation of the human family, the division and scattering of the families of the earth, whereas the New hemisphere tends to the congregation, the gathering together of the peoples. What they discover written upon the face of the earth, we perceive in the history of the last century, rapidly advancing in our country; so that from every quarter of the earth they are coming in and fulfilling the eternal purpose, geography of our land. It is in vain for our legislators to close the "Golden Gate" against the Asiatic, or Castle Garden against the European. Just as surely as water seeks its own level, so the peoples inevitably seek our land, and they will come. There is no wisdom in Congress, or in any body of men, to bring about a law which shall defeat the eternal law. Come they will, and it were better that we adjust our shoulders to the burden of receiving them in the spirit of the precept: "Freely ye have received, freely give." The blessings of our civilization and liberty belong to the nations of the earth; let us see to it that these nations.

written upon the very physical

shall have part in the blessings, which have been given to us as a precious legacy.

A similar theatre has been prepared on the southern half of this continent, in what we now know as the United States of Brazil. Vast area, healthfulness, and indivisibility, all point to a congregation of the families of man and a vast development in the near future.

It is remarkable that, just as we are fearing that we are having a little too much, a little more than we can adjust, of this immense tide of human life, Brazil, which has been reserved for such a time as this, is thrown open, and is stretching out her arms to all the nations. of the earth, and asking for labor to develop her

resources.

In the year 1500 a Portuguese fleet, meaning to double the Cape of Good Hope on the way to their East India possessions, was deflected against the coast of South America. Cabral announced that he had discovered something, and took possession in the name of Portugal; and in the name of the King of Heaven, erecting a cross upon this new shore, called it the Land of the Holy Cross." Is it not a marvel that the little nation on the extreme western coast of Europe should be able to hold four thousand miles of Atlantic coast against all comers? If you will look back over old maps of the 16th Century, you will see that France thought that she possessed a large portion of South America, and went so far as to name it Antarctic France. Later, the Dutch, in the 17th Century, possessed themselves of the northern coast of Brazil, and for a period of thirty years held it with strong forts. You will find their forts still in the cities of Pernambuco