“I have lived in America for half-a-century.”
“In what part of America?”
“In many parts, north and south and west. My life has been full of changes.”
“Change is good fortune. Yes, it is. To change is to live, and to have changed often, is to have had a perfect life.”
“Do you think the weavers of Annis much improved by all the changes that steam and machinery have brought to them?”
“No. Machinery confers neither moral nor physical perfection, and steam and iron and electricity do not in any way affect the moral nature. Men lived and died before these things were known. They could do so again.”
Here the guard came and unlocked our carriage, and my companion gathered his magazines and newspapers together and the train began to slow up. He turned to me with a smile and said, “Good-by, friend. Go on having changes, and fear not.”
“But if I do fear?”
“Look up, and say:
“O Thou who changest not! Abide with me!”