he mystery of life. But there is another, and a sadder one, which
they cannot teach us, which we must read on their tombstones.

"Do it with thy might." There have been myriads upon myriads of
human creatures who have obeyed this law--who have put every breath
and nerve of their being into its toil--who have devoted every hour,
and exhausted every faculty--who have bequeathed their unaccomplished
thoughts at death--who being dead, have yet spoken, by majesty of
memory, and strength of example. And, at last, what has all this
"Might" of humanity accomplished, in six thousand years of labor and
sorrow? What has it _done_? Take the three chief occupations and arts
of men, one by one, and count their achievements. Begin with the
first--the lord of them all--agriculture. Six thousand years have
passed since we were set to till the ground, from which we were
taken. How much of it is tilled? How much of that which is, wisely or
well? In the very centre and chief garden of Europe--where the two
forms of parent Christianity have had their fortresses--where the
noble Catholics of the Forest Cantons, and the noble Protestants of
the Vaudois valleys, have maintained, for dateless ages, their faiths
and liberties--there the unchecked Alpine rivers yet run wild in
devastation: and the marshes, which a few hundred men could redeem
with a year's labor, still blast their helpless inhabitants into
fevered idiotism. That is so, in the centre of Europe! While, on the
near coast of Africa, once the Garden of the Hesperides, an Arab
woman, but a few sunsets since, ate her child, for famine. And, with
all the treasures of the East at our feet, we, in our own dominion,
could not find a few grains of rice, for a people that asked of us
no more; but stood by, and saw five hundred thousand of them perish
of hunger.

Then, after agriculture, the art of kings, take the next head of human
arts--weaving; the art of queens, honored of all noble Heathen women, in
the person of their virgin goddess--honored of all Hebrew women, by the
word of their wisest king--"She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her
hands hold the distaff; she stretcheth out her hand to the poor. She is
not afraid of the snow for her household, for all her household are
clothed with scarlet. She maketh herself covering of tapestry, her
clothing is silk and purple. She maketh fine linen, and selleth it, and
delivereth girdles to the merchant." What have we done in all these
thou