110 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FAKH. 



exhibition of her intrinsic progress at any. The 

 railroad workman leaves a pyramid to mark the 

 ancient outline of the surface ; and it is wise in 

 him, for he has a motive in the retrospective meas- 

 urement. But with nature it is not so: ONWARD is 

 the eternal word ; and the memory how this meadow 

 looked when it was that morass, or this fair field 

 when it was that jungle of high hedges, stunted ash- 

 trees, tangled bushes, with docks and thistles to 

 correspond, to say nothing of heaved-up ridges, 

 and crooked furrows, all is past ; and he who looks 

 on it as it is, might as well ask leafy Summer to show 

 him how Winter looks on the same spot, as expect 

 the improved field to show him the history of its 

 improvement. " Oh ! Sir, if you had but seen this 

 field as I remember it!" has been the half-mortified 

 exclamation or remonstrance of many a worthy 

 toiler upon earth's surface, whose handy-work has 

 left no landmarks except upon his own brow. "If 

 you had but seen it as it was / " and there the in- 

 terjectional sentence ends unfinished : would it be 

 far from the truth a truth that will be one day 

 better understood to continue it thus: 



"You would give honor to the toiler and the 

 toil that are employed in carrying out the benefi- 

 cent designs of Providence for man, in subduing, 



