earth, the path of usefulness, as lights to the steps of youth and
ignorance. They are the salt of the earth, which keeps the world of
man from decaying back into barbarism. They are the children of
light whom God has set for lights that cannot be hid. They are the
aristocracy of God, into which not many noble, not many rich, not
many mighty are called. Most of them were poor; many all but unknown
in their own time; many died, and saw no fruit of their labours; some
were persecuted, some were slain, even as Christ the Lord was slain,
as heretics, innovators, and corruptors of youth. Of some, the very
names are forgotten. But though their names be dead, their works
live, and grow, and spread, over ever fresh generations of youth,
showing them fresh steps toward that Temple of Wisdom, which is the
knowledge of things as they are; the knowledge of those eternal laws
by which God governs the heavens and the earth, things temporal and
eternal, physical and spiritual, seen and unseen, from the rise and
fall of mighty nations, to the growth and death of the moss on yonder
moors.

They made their mistakes; they had their sins; for they were men of
like passions with ourselves. But this they did--They cried after
Wisdom, and lifted up their voice for understanding; they sought for
her as silver, and searched for her as hid treasure: and not in
vain.

For them, as to every earnest seeker after wisdom, that Heavenly Lady
showed herself and her exceeding beauty; and gave gifts to each
according to his earnestness, his purity and his power of sight.

To some she taught moral wisdom--righteousness, and justice, and
equity, yea, every good path.