"Victory and defeat. Joy and grief-- 'Tis these that make the warp And woof of human life. But Be faithful to right and duty, And you will have done Something to make the whole world better." XVII. Well Done. What has been done by the Negro since his emancipation to make himself an industrious, christian citizen? How well is he meeting the expectations of his friends? How successfully has he defeated the prophecies of his enemies? How is he working out his destiny? Go to the farms and the work-shops--go examine the tax-books of the country--go see the million colored boys and girls attending the industrial and other schools of the South--go count the hundreds of magnificent temples, all over the land, erected to God--go ask good men, who have informed themselves on the Negro question--go read the history of the industrial civilization of the last quarter century, and the answer will be, WELL DONE. There have been many discouragements--there have been many days as dark as the brow of midnight--as black as the curtains of hell--yet scintillations of Hope ever shot forth from the altars of religion and patriotism, which are bursting into refulgent light and heat to chase away the shadows, dispel the mist, disperse the clouds, and drive all animosities into the Red Sea of fraternal love. The asps which dropped from the head of the Medusa of slavery, are being driven out by the good St. Patrick of mutual interests and fellow-feeling. We are treading upon new ground, without the lamp of experience, or the lessons of history, to guide our feet. The conditions surrounding the races of the South are new problems in the political annals of the human family. The solution is proceeding according to the rules of Providence. Only the Negro and white man of the South can handle the crayon. External intermeddling can be productive of no good. The races of the South, alone, are responsible to God--amenable to the generations of the future for the figures and calculations which are being made upon the slate of southern development. It is true that we have had our Copiahs, Carrolltons and Danvilles, but the great wonder is that these conflicts have been so few, and so small. It is a marvel that the races have maintained such amicable relations, when the former conditions and the bitterness engendered by the change of those conditions are taken into consideration. It has required the exercise of profound wisdom, great foresight, and almost supernatural patience on the part of both races to bring us where we are with such propitious environments. A Western paper says: "The negroes of the South are rapidly solving their own problem by their religious and educational progress since their freedom. In view of the ignorance, superstition and degradation that enthralled them, we do not believe any other race on the globe has ever made more rapid progress than this people in the twenty-two years of their emancipation."