"And yet," he went on, changing his tone with his theme, "the empty sack is of value because it can be filled. Coarse, cheap, negligible as it seems, it is much too good to throw away. It is an asset to production, to the country’s trade, to the whole world’s wealth. And, gentlemen, what shall we say when we call that empty sack—a man?" The value of the human asset was the next point to which he led his listeners. "It is only a truism to say that among all the precious things with which the Almighty has blessed his creation the most precious is a human life; and yet we live in a world which seems to believe this so little that we must sometimes remind ourselves that it is so. Within a few years we have seen millions of men reckoned merely as _stuff_. As productive assets to the race, they haven’t counted. We could read of a day’s loss on the battlefield running up into the thousands and never turn a hair. We came to regard a young man’s life as primarily a thing to throw away. It is for this reason, gentlemen of the jury, that I venture to remind you that a young man’s life is primarily a thing to save. It may be a truism to say that a human life is the most precious of all created things; but it is a truism of which we are only now, to our bitter and incalculable cost, beginning to realize the truth." He went on to draw a picture of the contributions to the general good made by the Folletts, father and son. Their work had been humble, but it had been essential. Essential work faithfully performed should guarantee an old age protected against penury. He reminded his hearers that he was not opposed to the law of supply and demand, which was the only known method by which the business of the world could be carried on. He only pleaded for the same humanity to a man as was shown to a broken-down old horse. From his one interview with Lizzie, Stenhouse had got what he called "the good line," "_Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn._" Of this he now made use, following it up with St. Paul’s explanation: "Doth God take care for oxen? Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth may plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope."