nd did ever heal
but by degrees?' And Milton said:

"'Patience is more oft the exercise
Of saints, the trial of their fortitude.'

"So, let us try always to understand, in the midst of seeming great
trouble, that sorrow and trial have their place in our lives. Whether
they are for good or for bad depends largely upon ourselves.

"I want to tell you the tragedy of a book--a great book. We all know
of Thomas Carlyle's great work, 'The French Revolution.' Of this
wonderful production it has been said that 'It is a history of the
French Revolution and the poetry of it, both in one; and, on the
whole, no work of greater genius, either historical or poetical, has
been produced in England.' I wonder if we have all heard of the
tragedy of this great book and the sorrow which came to its author?

"One day, after Mr. Carlyle had finished the manuscript of the first
volume of the work, completing the labors of months and years, and
when he felt at last the relief which had tied his hands and his mind
through this long period, he loaned the work to his close friend, John
Stuart Mill. Before Mr. Mill had finished reading the manuscript, and
as it lay scattered about his study, his servant girl, thinking the
pages were nothing but waste paper, gathered them up and stuffed them
into her kitchen fire! Thus was the labor of weary, toilsome years
destroyed in a few moments. On his discovering the awful state of
affairs, it was Mr. Mill's duty to go to Mr. Carlyle's home and break
the news to him. Mr. Carlyle tells of the interview in these words:
'How well do I remember that night when he came to tell Mrs. Carlyle
and me, pale as Hector's ghost, that my unfortunate first volume was
burned. It was like a half sentence of death to both of us. We had to
pretend to take it lightly, so dismal and ghastly was its horror!'

"If the description of the scene were to end here, I am sure that some
of us would see only the darkest, gloomiest side. Let us make a sketch
to illustrate this condition. [Draw Fig. 106 complete.] But the
description does not stop here. Carlyle goes on to tell how, with the
sympathy of his wife, he began anew the great task, and, although it
was, as he says, a 'job' that nearly broke his heart, the result was a
work superior in every way to his original effort, and he lived to
rejoice in what he once considered to be a disastrous misfortune. He
received ample reward for his overmastering patience!

[Ill