First Sentence

"Standing as we do upon the sublime heights to which the progress of ages has elevated us, we are enabled to look back upon the footprints left by the ascending feet of those who have preceded us, and take account of every obstacle they have surmounted, every impulse that has swayed them to the right or the left, and almost hear the pulse-beats of the pilgrim hearts that have throbbed in response to the eternal cry at Life's Marshals, "Onward and Upward!""