their speed, it seemed to the two landsmen as though two stars had met in
space, saluted and passed on, each in its own sublime orbit.

Sedgwick and Browning soon made the acquaintance of several passengers.
A day or two later an animated conversation sprang up in the smoking
room. An American was declaring that his country was the greatest on
earth because it could feed the world from its mighty food area.

An Englishman disputed the claim, because the profits of the
manufacturers of little England were more than all the profits from
all the lands of the United States.

A Frenchman claimed the palm for France, because in France the people
were artists; from a little basis, from material well-nigh worthless in
itself, the Frenchman could, by infusing French brain into it, create a
thing of beauty for which the world was glad to exchange gold and gems.

Then Browning said: "You are all right, looking from a present horizon;
all wrong, when the years are taken into account. The great country of
the world is to be the country that produces the metals in the greatest
quantity and variety, and whose people acquire the art of turning them to
the best account. This ship that we are on, a few months ago, was but
unsightly ore in the ground. Look at it now! Tried by fire and fused with
labor, it has grown into this marvelous structure. England's greatness
and wealth are due, primarily, all to her mining. Her civilization can be
measured by her progress in reducing metals. She will begin to fall
behind soon, for America has, in addition to such mines as England
possesses, endless mines of gold and silver, and, after all, the precious
metals rule the nations and measure their civilization. It has always
been so and always will be. Those mines in America will build up greater