Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

"Far down the course of time I can see [France] still leading the nations, a wayward queen among the peoples, great in war, but greater in peace, quick in thought, deft in action, with her people's will for her sole monarch, from the sands of Calais to the blue seas of the south." (...)
"What of [England] ?"(...)
"My God !" she cried, "what is this that is shown me ? Whence come they these people, these lordly nations, these mighty countries which rise up before me ? I look beyond, and others rise, and yet others, far and farther to the shores of the uttermost waters."