The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1858-06-02
TREES.


ser, thus eloquently and beautifully dis
courses of trees: 4..ta e f as4
"Did it ever strike you all at once"
says N. P. Willis, in some of his letters,
chat tree is very beautiful thing
+ One must have had sudden sight Of
tree leaping out from some nook of UNI
fc lding hills, like knightin armor, and
crouching back again in the shut of a
transient perspective, to know what VIII
lis means. ...t
f O, there arc hours-listless hours of
trance-which translate all things to the
open heaven of the soul-when you shall
lie by an open window and watch thesun
90 down Though the thick branches Of the
tree, and see 1t swell and redden till it al
most bursts its cleaning rind with prag-
nancy Of glory, and drop at last like ripe
fruit from the gilded boughs; and then
with every leaf divinizcd by the aureole
of diving light, and with the tremor Of
that wonderful fruition on it, the tree shall
pass into celestial vision, and stand re-
vealed rapture of grace and beauty
and YOU shall lie there still and watch it
far beyond the twilight till it blossoms
with far off stars-and henceforth you
shall know the meaning of q tree.
Out upon the naked western plains
there will loom up often against the sky,
| q solitary tree, whose topmost branches
mark the travellers way upon the far ho-
rizon's edge. No man has seen that tree,
enacting the miracle of life alone in the
| void Of the desert, and etching its name
at eve upon the golden wall Of heaven,
but has been drawn towards it by sort
of human sympathy, and has seen in the
nod of its branches, the beck of an ancient
friend The traveller turns frf m his way
to seek its shrine. He journeys towards
it as towards an altar; and I'D matter how
wiltered and bare its limbs lnay be-no
matter if lightning have blasted and char
red its trunk-he find; il a very le .utiful
| thing, locket of love on natures breast,
repeating thousand old storcs--reviying
thousand old joys. assa sx
Yes, a tree is very beautiful thing.
Whether it losses its crown of green
in the pomp and pride ofsummer, or filings
its gauntlet of autumn leaves at our feet,
or stands uncrowned and desolate, swing
ing its naked arms in a wall of ghosty
sorrow--it is always saeredly beautiful
thing. It is a symbol of life. It's Ma
ture S divine aspiration-the prayer that
springs from its heart 1t is q fountain
of living music, cathedral hymn gush-
ing up from the earth and lealing toward
heaven in torrent of spray, caught as it
is falling, and suspended, by magic, mid
air. fa9. se6 oso5 sH4-G i
/ Oh. for trees! for trees! to quench the
hot glaro of noon; for yistas of trees to
soften the hard ways of the city-to melt
the stony stare of the angular facts of life.
| Oh! for the shadow Of sing boughs-
for some Of Gods green to mans Haunting
white and red-for q touch of kindly ma
ture to these mathematical .p1illions Ct
brick-for some depth Of physical life to
this hypocritical surface smlrk Of dead,
dry paint. ssHs
Plant trees then for the sake of your
souls and the souls of those that come nj
ter you, for the solace they bring to the
heart, for the lessons they teach and the
hopes that grow with them and the men.
cries they monument. Plant trees II
your gardens and lawns, where Their shad
I ows shall drape your windows. Plant
them along the streets; plant them IL
/ parks and rows, and wherever trees vii
grow. Festocn your city with living
green. Fill up the air with shadows; fiji
# brimfitll of beauty. And above all else
nlant trees in the hearts Of your children
4 and let them take root with the germ Q
y life and Irvine round the depths Of thel
natures; and arch over all their past witt
the summer joys Of trees, and cover al
their life with the sweet religion of trees.