CHAPTER I.
PHINEAS PETT: BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH SHIP-BUILDING.
"A speck in the Northern Ocean, with a rocky coast, an ungenial climate, and a soil scarcely fruitful,--this was the material patrimony which descended to the English race--an inheritance that would have been little worth but for the inestimable moral gift that accompanied it.

Yes; from Celts, Saxons, Danes, Normans--from some or all of them--have come down with English nationality a talisman that could command sunshine, and plenty, and empire, and fame.

The 'go' which they transmitted to us--the national vis--this it is which made the old Angle-land a glorious heritage.

Of this we have had a portion above our brethren--good measure, running over.

Through this our island-mother has stretched out her arms till they enriched the globe of the earth....Britain, without her energy and enterprise, what would she be in Europe ?"--Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1870).
In one of the few records of Sir Isaac Newton's life which he left for the benefit of others, the following comprehensive thought occurs: "It is certainly apparent that the inhabitants of this world are of a short date, seeing that all arts, as letters, ships, printing, the needle, &c., were discovered within the memory of history." If this were true in Newton's time, how much truer is it now.