" The second and third are descriptions of the Last
Judgment,--the one a late improvisation, with some traces
of outside influence:
"Oh, the stars in the elements are falling,
And the moon drips away into blood,
And the ransomed of the Lord are returning unto God,
Blessed be the name of the Lord."
And the other earlier and homelier picture from the low
coast lands:
"Michael, haul the boat ashore,
Then you'll hear the horn they blow,
Then you'll hear the trumpet sound,
Trumpet sound the world around,
Trumpet sound for rich and poor,
Trumpet sound the Jubilee,
Trumpet sound for you and me."
Through all the sorrow of the Sorrow Songs there breathes
a hope--a faith in the ultimate justice of things. The minor
cadences of despair change often to triumph and calm confi-
dence. Sometimes it is faith in life, sometimes a faith in
death, sometimes assurance of boundless justice in some fair
world beyond. But whichever it is, the meaning is always
clear: that sometime, somewhere, men will judge men by
their souls and not by their skins. Is such a hope justified? Do
the Sorrow Songs sing true?
The silently growing assumption of this age is that the
probation of races is past, and that the backward races of
to-day are of proven inefficiency and not worth the saving.
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