The boundlessness of those mighty meadows was in itself calculated to strike an awe through the bosom of the advancing army; before it they lay — the Map of the Infinite: a vast table on which, as on the tables of stone the fingers of an omnipotent had written Majesty, Power and Eternity. Contemplations like these were sufficient in themselves to fill the mind of the armed host with feelings of awe and humility, but when, over the immense prairie, they saw evidences that something had passed which for the moment rivalled Deity; more palpable in its manifestations, nearer in its visible strength and less merciful in its might  when the tracks about them and the desert solitude which Behemoth had created became thus clearly, apparent, they shrunk within themselves and doubted the wisdom of their present enterprise.

Part First, pages 50-51