y the
darkness of the night gives place to the morning dawn, and how slowly
the grey dawn of the morning brightens into noon! How slowly the cold of
winter gives place to the warmth of spring and summer. How slowly the
seed deposited in the ground springs up, putting forth first the blade,
then the ear, and then the full ripe corn in the ear. And how slowly we
grow up from babyhood to manhood, and how slowly we pass on from early
sprightly manhood, to the sobriety and wisdom of age. And how slowly the
nations advance in science, in arts, and in commerce; in religion, and
morals, and government. And so it is in all the works of God. Even the
startling phenomena presented by the earth's surface, which earlier
philosophers supposed to be the result of violent and sudden
convulsions, are now regarded as the result of the slow and ordinary
action of natural powers. Leisurely movement is the eternal and
universal law. And it is no use complaining; you cannot alter it. You
cannot make a hen hatch her eggs in less than three weeks, do what you
will. You may crack the shells, thinking to let the chickens out a
little earlier; but you let death in, and the chickens never do come out
at all. "The more haste the less speed." I have had proof of this more
than once in my own experience. I once lived in a house terribly
infested with rats, and I wanted to get rid of them as quick as I could,
for they were a great nuisance. But, I was in too big a hurry to
succeed. One night I heard a terrible splashing in the water-tub in the
cellar. "That's a rat," said I, "I'll dispatch that, anyhow:" and I took
the lighted candle and poker, and hastened into the cellar, thinking to
kill the creature at once. When the rat saw me with candle and poker, it
made an extra spring, completely cleared the edge of the tub, and got
safe away into its hole. I was in such a hurry to kill it, that I saved
its life. When I got to it, it was drowning itself as nicely as it could
do; and if I had had patience to wait, it would have been dead in ten
minutes. But because I would not wait, and let it die quietly, it would
not die at all. And it may be living now for anything I know, and may
have bred a hundred other rats since then, and all because I would not
give it time to die in peace. There are rats everywhere still. There are
rats in the Church, rats in the State; rats in palaces, and rats in
hovels. There are rats of despotism and tyranny, rats of slavery and