The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1883-06-21
BY MISS ELMALONG.

ment! The human race IS like a
mighty banyan tree, whose lofty crest
is kissed by the winds Of heaven;
whose far expanding boughs comprise
the nations of earth; whose leeves
are typical of the multitudes who live
and move upon its surface. Forth
from the parent trunk, shoot the
youthful branches, until received in
| the embrace of earth, they become
new pillars Of strength, supporting
the common stem. The boughs of
tentimes, swayed by tumultuons
winds, clash and strike together;
leaves fall by thousands; portions of
the branches themselves, are torn
away, and hurled forever from the
places of their existence. Even the
winds of peace, bear away on their
wings, myriads Of those leaves which
have grown old, and severed their con-
nection; or those yet young and fresh
in the spring-time glory of existence,
which, because Of some latent defect.
are forced to undergo a new transi-
ton; but the eternal enduring trunk
remains.
And so in human life, the nations.
stirred by the storms Of wide spread
discord, battle among themselves.
Whole n-tions are uprooted and de-
stroyed, and the individual members
of nations, like the leaves of the for
est, are swept away in the fury blast
Of woe. War, proud, sublime, heroic
war, enlists under its thousand ban
ners, these frail human leaves, and by
its wild and thrilling intoxication,
lures them on to a fateful destiny.
See yonder! amid the flash and gloom
of frenzied fight, ten thousand thou
sand warriors swell the flood of holy
war. There lifts and falls, like
gleam Of light, the christians cross Of
gold; and there deep set in cloud of
battle smoke, the beauteous eastern
crescent flames. They rage, they toll,
they fight and die, but die to live
again. The christian knight falls dy-
ing, and before his CLASSY eye the joys
of heaven pass, such joys as in his
boy-hood days, his sanity mother
taught him to believe were the just
due Of warrior knight who did battle
for the holy sepulchre. The swarthy
soldier Of the Prophet, bends low in
the last agonies Of death, and with
his latest breath, exclaims: "Allah il
Allah, and Mahomet is his prophet"
ready to enjoy that radiant paradise
prepared for all true believers who die
in defense of Islam. Frail mortals!
they fall as the leaves of the forest;
the immortal trunk remains.
There sails the pirate Disease. See
the hideous skull displayed in the pale
folds of her banner! Under that flag
assemble the aggregate evils of hu-
manity. There Pestilence waves her
loathsome hair; there cruel deformi-
ty gibes and mocks, and gaunt con-
sumption, weaving shrouds, assists
stern Death to guide the wheel;
Chartered by the admiralty Of Perdi-
tion, she sails, and all the world pays
unwilling tribute to her power; and
wonderful is the harvest Of human
leaves she gathers. Yes we fall as
leaves, but do not die. The unceas-
ing fall Of these vegetable leaves, CEN
tury after century, from the forest of
the world, indicates simply, the neces-
sity Of change. This accumulation
of ages is not mere mass of dead
matter. it has only changed the form
of its existence.
Itlives again in the waving grass,
in the modest flower, or in the majes-
tic tree. The life still is and never
ceases to be. 1t is an entity that can
not be destroyed. True it is, that we
cannot account for the absence of the
evidences of life, but can it be said,
that, because we do not observe the
ghostly passage of the intangible es-
sence, that it does not exist, that it
has been destroyed? Certainly not.
We observe about us ali nature pulls
ing with life. All things animate
and inanimate LIVE, and are parts of
one vast universal life. Every atom
Of earth, every drop of water, every
beam of sunlight, every star and sys-
tenn of Of stars are subject to the same
fixed and immutable law. They live,
and the same essense that gives us Vi
tality and being pervades them. We
may see, if we chose, the microscopic
millions, wandering upon the narrow
surface Of leaf; we may note the
queer gambols of loathsome Shiny
reptiles, as they disport themselves in
drop of vinegar; and were our hear
ing sufficiently acute, we could hear
the melodious murmurs Of the intini-
tesmal streams that flow within the
narrow circumference of the thistles
spike. The leaf is but one of the
countless multitudes of objects, from
which we might select, but there is a
poetic similarity apparent, when we
speak of the fall of leaf, the parting
fro,,, 4ba ,>oraot Stop, oud tho fallinU