THE GROWTH OF TIME. 321 



and it isn't onlikely that each generation of the future 

 will creep up a little higher, till one day they may at- 

 tain to the full growth and perfect stature of manhood, 

 and in all that belongs to the most finished work of 

 the Great God. 



" As to what you say respectin' the time necessary 

 to bring it all about, I have thought of that, too, and 

 I've read in the Bible what, to my notion, answers it 

 all. Nater, or rather the Great God of nater, ain't 

 bound down to years, or hundreds of years. "With 

 Him, ' a single clay is as a thousand years, and a thou- 

 sand years as one day.' Hundreds of generations 

 passin' before Him, are as the lightnin' flashin' from 

 the cloud, before the. eyes of a man. It takes the tall 

 pine a hundred years to grow to its full strength, and 

 yet another hundred years to grow weak, and rotten, 

 and fall to the ground. It took this country two hun- 

 dred years to fit itself for independence and progress, 

 but the causes that were to make it great, and firm, 

 and strong, were all the time at work. So it will take 

 the black people a long while to grow up, and the 

 white peoples long time to go down, before the great 

 change can come. Ydu and I, Squire, must finish our 

 work in the time allotted to us. ^Y"e must hurry on 



14* 



