THE CRUCIBLE _April 12, 1917._ LET us speak a little of this initiation through which the race is passing. Always the trials precede the attainment. When these wars are over there will be a new world, for the souls of men will have been baptized with the fire and the blood. America must have her part in it. To her also must come the trials and the attainment. Watch and pray. Some day I will send you back to commune with the soul of the Old World--some day _we_ will send you back. It is another Europe you will find, a Europe tried by fire, and some of it will be fine steel, and some of it will be clinkers in the furnace, for the fire proves the metal, and separates the metal from the slag. From before the war to this day, the battles of the earth have been enacted also in your soul, the blood and the fire, the pain and the travail. You too have passed through the fiery furnace. Long ago, when you identified your soul with the soul of the world, you took upon yourself the trials of the world, the initiatory trials. You also called down upon yourself the weight of your old karma, the effects of the causes you had set up through the ages. That you are at rest for a time means only that you have worked yourself free from a little of the load. Had you not done it now, you would have had to do it in the future. Rejoice for every trial that brings you nearer to the goal. And this I say for all men. If I speak of the world now, instead of that part only that we call America, it is to identify the part with the whole. If I speak of you personally, it is to identify you with the whole. Back in that Europe to which you will go, you will find two classes, those who have become fine steel, and those who have become refuse. You will know the one from the other. They will welcome you back, for you have passed through the fire with them. They will welcome your country, too, for it now turns its face to the fire. Be not discouraged by dismal prophecies. Man does not live by bread alone. If you have less to eat, your bodies will grow finer. If you have more to do, your minds and spirits will expand. Few of you work to your full capacity. The unit of force that is man may generate much energy, drawing it up from the deeps of himself at the call of need or of will. Work harder now. Once I told you to rest more, but the laborers are called to the vineyard. The hour of rest will come again, when the day draws near its close. In entering into the war, my country, put away all rancor, and fight for the right in which there is no rancor. Hate not. The hour for hate is past. (I say this, knowing that Hate and Fear, the mother of Hate, will come and challenge your souls.)