The work of the gospel had got to be begun from the foundation.

Nevertheless it is not to be doubted that remote memories or lingering traditions of a better age survived to aid the work of those who by and by should enter in to rebuild the waste places.[24:1] There are not a few of us, wise after the event, who recognize a final cause of this surprising and almost dramatic failure, in the manifest intent of divine Providence that the field of the next great empire in the world's history should not become the exclusive domain of an old-world monarchy and hierarchy; but the immediate efficient causes of it are not so obvious.

This, however, may justly be said: some of the seeming elements of strength in the French colonization proved to be fatal elements of weakness.
1.

The French colonies had the advantage of royal patronage, endowment,[24:2] and protection, and of unity of counsel and direction.
They were all parts of one system, under one control.

And their centers of vitality, head and heart, were on the other side of the sea.
Subsisting upon the strength of the great monarchy, they must needs share its fortunes, evil as well as good.