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Show 34 THE GOLDEN HOUR. egg, pass through preceding forms. Every crab must be a trilobite and a lobster before it is born a crab. Man himself 1nust first resc1nblc the lower beings. As these inferior shapes have pioneered the way for the higher in the earth, so do they now in each individual case. As pioneers they arc essential; but if the higher being forthcoming shall retain any of these inferior embryonic conditions, he is deformed ; as when a man has a hare's lip or ape's hand. But every ·deformity was right in its place; every lip is at one period a hare-lip; it is a dcfor1nity only when retained where a healthy development would have gone beyond it. The birth of a nation is not different. We have struggled by son1e phases which allied us to lower governments: we 1nust struggle by the \Var pha ·e. The war is but the gorilla phase in our national elnbryo ; we must ·co that it docs not linger longer than is needed to add it contribution to the national manhood. If, when the period of purely htunan power arrive , the word remains, it were as if claw and fang remained when the period of tooth and hand arrived. Already there arc unmistakable indications that the mere military enthusia m in this contc t is coolinO' l 'l 0 w n st the anxiety concerning the issue is deeper each' day than the day before. Many of our soldiers who rushed to \Va. bington had to be kept there by (what must be regarded) a forced deci ion of a United tatos judge ; it was easily seen that, if one man could claim THE TWO EDGES OF THE SWORD. 35 the limit of cnlistlneut, Washington would be left undefended. There is no longer any activity in rccruitinO'stations; and, in the West, recruiting itinerants a;e getting up revival meetings for the war. The appeals of these officers to the crowd resemble those of revivalists imploring the unconverted to be saYcd. In the same tones they beseech the youth to " close in with the overtures," to enlist before it shall be " awfully too late." The crowd usually rcn1ains still, as the depraved too often do in the revival meetings. It is certain that one or two more " Shilohs " will bring a draft upon these profoundly impenitent young 1nen. In one of these meetings, in Central Ohio, I remember a tremendous sensation which was produced by an old man, ·who arose and said that he had three sons, brave as anylJody's sons, and he was willing to sacrifice them for his country; but he desired to be perfectly sure that they were not to be sacrificed to 11 uman sI a v-e~ y' or to preserve it in the land ; he would not sac-rl~ ce their nail-pairings for that, or for the U niou w1th that. |