et shaking with delight because something within you has
turned out a better bit of work than you had thought possible.

And if, besides all this, the background of feeling and will in you is
wholly right; if, by the grace of God, you have learned to work in delicate
veracity, stern against yourself, loyal to the Perfection whose veils no
man has lifted; if the far vision of that Perfection touches you with
humility, mans you with courage, and makes you leap glad to meet the tasks
which are set for you,--what is this but entrance here and now into the
Kingdom of God?

And if this crowning grace comes to you, as it may in any calling--it came
to Uncle Tom--you will not, I think, believe that all your hands have
wrought is vanity. You will not believe that the Logos who has called our
race out of the earth to behold and share in his creation is a dream, a
mockery of our despair, as we make the last useless turns about the dying
sun. But you will see that He knew the truth of things who said:

My Father worketh hitherto and I work. The works that I do shall ye do
also and greater works than these shall ye do because I go to the
Father.

THE FALLOW[13]

JOHN AGRICOLA

[Footnote 13: By permission of the author, John Finley.]

In a book on "Roman Farm Management" containing translations of Cato and
Varro by a "Virginia Farmer" (who happens also to be an American railroad
president), there is quoted in the original Latin a proverb whose practice
not only gave basis for the proud phrase "_Romanus sum_" but also helped to
make the Romans "a people of enduring achievement." It is "_Romanus sedendo
vincit_." For, as this new-world farmer adds by way of translation and
emphasis, "The Romans achieved their results by _thoroughness_ and
_patience_." "It was thus," he continues, "they defeated Hannibal, and it
was thus that they built their farmhouses and fences, cultivated their
fields, their vineyards and their olive yards, and bred and fed their
livestock. They seemed to have realized that there are no shortcuts in the
processes of nature and that the law of compensations is invariable." "The
foundation of their agriculture," he asserts, "was the _fallow_"; and
concludes, commenting upon this, that while "one can find instruction in
their practice even to-day, one can benefit even more from their
agricultural philosophy, for the characteristic of the American farmer is
that he is in too much of a hurry