HARDWOOD RECORD 



Our materials, tools, minds, bodies, instincts and aspirations are 

 all a heritage, and heirship seems to be our chiefest 

 function. 



We are at the narrow neck to which all the sands of eternity are 

 crowding and through which they are dropping. 



And as all the past led down to our barn, so the future spreads 

 out before it. 



How many generations of horses and kine, brothers and bene- 

 factors of men, will be comfortably housed in the crypt 

 of this temple! 



How many animals of all kinds, two-legged and four-legged 

 and with and without feathers, will it feed! 



How it will sow life broadcast: life which will swell out forever 

 widening in geometrical progression! 



And when, sooner or later, its final voyage is over, what new 

 creative forces will issue from every plank and seam! 



The stones and slate, built into new buildings, or ground into 

 busy roadways, the wood blazing in winter fireplaces, 

 the smoke and dust absorbed again by new forests, and 

 merged into new geological strata, and all surely saved 

 forever in some strong-box of the world's treasure-house, 

 and forever bearing interest! 



This is no mere stone barn. 



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It is a link in the chain of creation, offspring and ancestor of all 

 the ages. 



We have the whole universe with us to-day : for all the past is 

 here working for all the future. 



