—John G. Whittier.
(3509)
Workmanship—See [Beauty from Fragments].
WORKS DESTROYED
When Thomas Carlyle was writing his famous history of the French Revolution, and when he had the first volume ready for the printer’s hands, he one day loaned the manuscript to John Stuart Mill, his intimate and admiring friend. This friend’s servant girl, seeing the pile on the library floor one day, and wanting some kindling, unceremoniously put the whole of it into the stove and kindled the fire with it. Thus the priceless labor of many years was in a few moments swept away.
Mill came himself, pale and trembling, to break the news to the author. When he heard it, his spirit fairly broke down under the terrible disaster.
If the loss of a book is such a calamity, how unspeakably terrible will it be to have the works of one’s lifetime burned? There are men of whom the divine word says, “They shall be saved, but their works shall be burned.”
(3510)
Works, Immortality in One’s—See [Immortality of Influence].
WORLD IMPROVING