The field of _literature_. What is literature? It is the embalmed treasure of the mind, treasured up and sent down to a life beyond. David and Job, Plato and Shakespeare have come down to us as representatives of historic people, to whom they belong. Every nation that has had literature has drawn for posterity an exact picture of itself. The American people may say what they are, but their literature will tell to posterity how little and how great they were. The history of nations tells what they were. These fields our boys and girls are going to enter. God knows what they will be, for we have some aspirations. The Bible is full of the aspirations of the people that lived in the ages that have been. Three thousand years that have passed away stand in the light a realization of what to David was a dream and to Job was mingled with doubt. So we have aspirations, and not only these, but noble thoughts, and they will yet find expression in what I believe will be among the world's noblest literature. The other people have been busy, and we are waiting for them to get through. This is their hour. You know some people do that; they sit back and wait until the other fellow gets through. But the white boy and girl must not halt or wait: write the very best poems you can; get your histories into shape; form your thoughts along the highest line, for there are about five million black boys and girls coming. If your ears were good enough you could hear them coming down the corridors of time. They will be here by and by. They have some songs to sing, some histories to write, some aspirations and some thoughts to give to the world.