If the state declined, it declined, there was little strength at the roots, little that sprang from the soil, but in New York, which men already forecast as the metropolis of the New World, there was strength everywhere.

It might be a sprawling town.

There might be no courtliness to equal the courtliness at the heart of Quebec, but there was vigor, vigor everywhere.

The people were eager, restless, curious, always they worked and looked ahead.
He saw all these things very clearly.

Silence, loneliness and distance gave a magnificent perspective.