After a pause Jordan spoke up again:  “Jim, it ain’t for me ter try ter understand much, but ther kentry ’round heah and ther people we has seen kinder breaks me up.  They tell us over ther to ther right, man fust cum outer his wild state; ez yo’ has it, that ’ther cradle of civilization war fust rocked.’  For five thousand year, they has been a-tryin’.  Look at ’em now!  Then over on the other side, the chosen people of God pulled out; they flourished; they killed their enemies, built cities and temples; hed big talkers and writers and fiters; fixed up language thet thrills a man’s soul jest ter read it now; made a starter thet the world’s been a-follerin’ ever since, and right and left ther whole world are blasted, and no one wud ever think thet God’s smile once lit this region.  If this showin’ makes ther balance sheet fur five thousand years, what’s ther use in tryin’?”

“True,” said Sedgwick.  “In everything, the ancient man was the equal, if not the superior, of any men who live to-day.  As soldiers, orators, and writers, the utmost men hope for is to emulate them, never to excel them.  A famous English orator not long ago said that he had often been called upon to address boisterous men who had gathered in mobs for mischief, and that the only time he had ever succeeded in quelling such a gathering and turning them completely over to the side of order and peace, was when he had repeated to them his own translation of one of the impassioned orations that Demosthenes had flung with all the majesty and power of his eloquence at an Athenian mob twenty-two hundred years ago.  No modern sculpture equals the ancient; no modern song or eloquence; and then there have come down to us lessons in patriotism, devotion to duty, self-abnegation and valor, which will thrill great hearts as long as civilization shall last.

“Only in one thing that I can note does the modern man excel his ancient brother.  The world is more merciful than of old.  Prisoners of war are no longer sold into slavery or killed; woman has ceased to be first a plaything and then a slave; in exalting woman, man has been exalted, and the perfect modern home had no parallel in the ancient world.  The influence that the Cross gave out is still spreading and softening the hearts of men.”

“May be,” said Jordan, “but, Jim, it’s a mighty big undertakin’ to civilize men.  Here’s all Africa over here ter the right whar only the old rule prevails; man is a monstrous brute; woman is wuss nor a slave.”

“That is true, Tom,” said Sedgwick.  “The cruelties practiced there are almost enough to make one doubt the divinity of man and the mercy of God.”

“Yet who knows?” said Jordan.  “What are a few thousand years ter God?  Thar must be somethin’ behind, or men wouldn’t hev been born.  Ther other day in London thar war a man carryin’ a flag on a short staff thet hed a glitterin’ p’int.  He war preachin’ on ther street corners thet men hed no souls; thet ther man ez sed he hed a soul war a fool, ’nd he asked whar ther souls war, ’nd ef any surgeon hed ever cum upon a soul when dissectin’ a body, or on ther place whar ther soul hed lodged in ther man’s lifetime.