336 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 
—the mountains, of sublime! We must unchain the winter 
—quell the torrid sun !— 
We must charm the water—make its sedges spread— : 
Must win all bitter berries up and make them turn to bread ! 
E’en the insensate sod 
Must wake to know its life, 
To feel it has a God, 
And join the upward strife! 
So she spoke, in a rapid, distinct manner, for some moments, 
and then abruptly ceased. This wild and half-poetical rhap- 
sody impressed me quite as solemnly as the mythical mutterings 
of a Pythoness would have done, and I could make no reply. 
Very soon she commenced speaking again, in a voice still 
more subdued. 
“This sounds to you as altogether vague, because the 
thoughts are new. But do you know these thoughts are as 
old as humanity? Men have always thought so—when they 
had brains to think with; they have not, except in isolated 
instances, dared to speak what they knew! They have hidden 
their sense in allegories—they have spoken in double mean- 
ings—or they have demonstrated in words. This was not 
sufficient. Mankind requires something more than words! 
The hieroglyphics of our infancy, as a race, must not be ren- 
dered into demonstration alone—but into physical realities. 
‘We must speak in creations—like Gods !—if we wish to be 
worthy of our trust. We must prove that he—and we!— 
possessing the ‘one talent’—(which simply means our earth) ! 
are worthy; and that it may not be given to him possessing 
five! In a word, we shall not and cannot wrap that ‘one 
talent in a napkin!’ We must work in our own despite and 
for our own self-respect—must be doing for the good of others, 
as well as ourselves !” 
“But how ?” said I, humbly—“ It is easy enough to dig!” 
“OQ yes !—to delve is the lot of our race! But we must 
