shall find him whom she lost, and that then she will not be all-
unworthy. Who blames her? Something is lost in the passage of

every soul from one eternity to the other,--something pure and
beautiful, which might have been and was not: a hope, a talent,

a love, over which the soul mourns, like Esau deprived of his
birthright. What blame to the meek Quaker, if she took her lost

hope to make the hills of heaven more fair?
Nothing remains to tell that the poor Welsh puddler once lived,

but this figure of the mill-woman cut in korl. I have it here
in a corner of my library. I keep it hid behind a curtain,--it

is such a rough, ungainly thing. Yet there are about it
touches, grand sweeps of outline, that show a master's hand.

Sometimes,--to-night, for instance,--the curtain is accidentally
drawn back, and I see a bare arm stretched out imploringly in

the darkness, and an eager, wolfish face watching mine: a wan,
woful face, through which the spirit of the dead korl-cutter

looks out, with its thwarted life, its mightyhunger, its
unfinished work. Its pale, vague lips seem to tremble with a

terrible question. "Is this the End?" they say,--"nothing
beyond? no more?" Why, you tell me you have seen that look in

the eyes of dumb brutes,--horses dying under the lash. I know.
The deep of the night is passing while I write. The gas-light

wakens from the shadows here and there the objects which lie
scattered through the room: only faintly, though; for they

belong to the open sunlight. As I glance at them, they each
recall some task or pleasure of the coming day. A half-moulded

child's head; Aphrodite; a bough of forest-leaves; music; work;
homely fragments, in which lie the secrets of all eternal truth

and beauty. Prophetic all! Only this dumb, woful face seems to
belong to and end with the night. I turn to look at it. Has

the power of its desperate need commanded the darkness away?
While the room is yet steeped in heavy shadow, a cool, gray

light suddenly touches its head like a blessing hand, and its
groping arm points through the broken cloud to the far East,

where, in the flickering, nebulous crimson, God has set the
promise of the Dawn.

End

• outline [´autlain] n.外形 vt.画出...轮廓 (初中英语单词)
• hunger [´hʌŋgə] n.饥饿；渴望 (初中英语单词)
• sunlight [´sʌnlait] n.日光 (初中英语单词)
• eternal [i´tə:nəl] a.永远的；永恒的 (初中英语单词)
• desperate [´despərit] a.拼死的；绝望的 (初中英语单词)
• blessing [´blesiŋ] n.祝福 (初中英语单词)
• eternity [i´tə:niti] n.永恒，来世，无穷 (高中英语单词)
• mighty [´maiti] a.强有力的 ad.很 (高中英语单词)
• faintly [´feintli] ad.微弱地，软弱无力的 (高中英语单词)
• crimson [´krimzən] a.&n.深(紫)红(的) (高中英语单词)
• quaker [´kweikə] n.教友会教徒 (英语六级单词)
• prophetic [prə´fetik] a.预言(家)的；预示的 (英语六级单词)