THOUGHT INDESTRUCTIBLE. 137 



frost and water. It is the one thing which will 

 tell some future visitor to this spot that here 

 man paused; here he controlled fire: here, per- 

 haps, was his abiding place. Charcoal, destruc- 

 tible only by fire ; thought, destructible only by 

 forgetfulness. If written or printed retained 

 for centuries, perhaps for a time forgotten, then 

 coming again to the eye of human and beget- 

 ting a new idea. Thought, the leaven of eter- 

 nity, the one thing which measures time, which 

 chronicles the doings of Gods and men, which 

 is the everlasting part of the soul. The thoughts 

 of Christ, of Buddha, of Solomon, of Plato, of 

 Shakespeare, of Burns, of Longfellow, of all 

 great men, represent the everlasting, the eter- 

 nal, the charcoal grains of those men. They 

 lived, they thought, they died. That they lived 

 and died, we the living know only by their 

 thoughts that have come down to us. Their 

 flesh and bones are to-day dust of the earth or 

 combinations of matter in other living forms. 

 Their energies are part and parcel of that sum 

 total of expended energy which fills all space 

 above. Their thoughts are here, the one part 

 of them which we may grasp and know. If we 

 would be remembered in the ages yet to be we 

 should then think noble thoughts, thoughts 

 which will stand the test of time, which will be 

 worthy of reading by the humans of the future, 



