blasted, and no one wud ever think thet God's smile once lit this
region. If this showin' makes ther balance sheet fur five thousand years,
what's ther use in tryin'?"

"True," said Sedgwick. "In everything, the ancient man was the equal, if
not the superior, of any men who live to-day. As soldiers, orators, and
writers, the utmost men hope for is to emulate them, never to excel them.
A famous English orator not long ago said that he had often been called
upon to address boisterous men who had gathered in mobs for mischief, and
that the only time he had ever succeeded in quelling such a gathering and
turning them completely over to the side of order and peace, was when he
had repeated to them his own translation of one of the impassioned
orations that Demosthenes had flung with all the majesty and power of
his eloquence at an Athenian mob twenty-two hundred years ago. No modern
sculpture equals the ancient; no modern song or eloquence; and then
there have come down to us lessons in patriotism, devotion to duty,
self-abnegation and valor, which will thrill great hearts as long as
civilization shall last.

"Only in one thing that I can note does the modern man excel his ancient
brother. The world is more merciful than of old. Prisoners of war are
no longer sold into slavery or killed; woman has ceased to be first a
plaything and then a slave; in exalting woman, man has been exalted,
and the perfect modern home had no parallel in the ancient world. The
influence that the Cross gave out is still spreading and softening the
hearts of men."

"May be," said Jordan, "but, Jim, it's a mighty big undertakin' to
civilize men. Here's all Africa over here ter the right whar only the old
rule prevails; man is a monstrous brute; woman is wuss nor a slave."

"That is true, Tom," said Sedgwick. "The cruelties practiced there are
almost enough to make one doubt the divinity of man and the mercy of
God."

"Yet who knows?" said Jordan. "What are a few thousand years ter God?
Thar must be somethin' behind, or men wouldn't hev been born. Ther other
day in London thar war a man carryin' a flag on a short staff thet hed a
glitterin' p'int. He war preachin' on ther street corners thet men hed no
souls; thet ther man ez sed he hed a soul war a fool, 'nd he asked whar
ther souls war, 'nd ef any surgeon hed ever cum upon a soul when
dissectin' a body, or on ther place whar ther soul hed lodged in ther
man's lifetime.

"I wur listenin' 'nd t