| THE COMING OF THE EUROPEANS. 275
aid of man. One of the most striking examples of
the former class is that. of the grasses and the
cereal grains, such as wheat and rye, which now
cover millions and millions of acres through all the
central regions of the continent, where formerly
brakes and bullrushes and wild wood-flowers, bar-
en and useless, had complete possession.
It is well that this should be so. Such changes
are in fulfillment of the beneficent designs formed
by the author of nature for the gradual improve-
ment of the condition of the earth, and the ad-
vancement of it, in respect to its occupants, from
lower to higher and nobler forms of life.
CHANGES IN THE RACES OF MEN.
A change exactly analogous to these has taken
place in respect to man. The aboriginal inhabit-
ants of the country were of races formed with con-
stitutions, both physical and mental, adapting them
to obtain their livelihood by fishing and the chase—
modes of life by means of which North America
might sustain perhaps twenty or thirty millions of
inhabitants. The Caucasian race, which was in-
troduced from Europe, is endowed with consti-
tutions adapting them to gain their livelihood by
agriculture, commerce, and the manufacturing
arts, a mode of life by which the same territory
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