Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1885-04-16
CdNNUNIEG WITH NATURE.
Address Of Rev. r. E. HiEbee, ID. H., state su-
Perintendewt, NJ the Lancaster High
schools observance Of Arbor Day.
April the sixteenth. 1885.

have reduced to writing what now
read, that, being printed, you may at greater
leisure read II over, and make its suggestions
part Of your thoughtful Arbor Day medita-
tion hereafter l4
All Of ms, whether young or old, are
blessed by God with many teachers. Les
sons of almost infinite purport are spread out
before MS to be read, II haply we have eyes 10
see Voices Of most profound significance |
are filling the vast orb of nature to be heard, |
II haply wo have ears TO hear. By seek |
Ing we may find, If we have hearts TO under |
stand.
as Tongues in trees books in the running |
brooks, |
Sermons in stones. ana good in everything"
First our own Mother-tongue confronts us
at the very cradle, accompanying the loving
glance Of her, the remembered tones Of
whose w. lullaby grow dearer e. tho years go
every hour AZ we emerge from infancy TO
youth, and from youth TO manhood or wo-
manhood. We hear It at home and abroad,
on the playground and In the street. Every
whore, and at ali times, II meets us, and by
hidden processes entersi into all our affections
Into every movement of oLr iuner spirit
giving prompt and proper utterance to what
| otherwise would be silent and Alone Who
| can rightly measure its power? How long
would be the struggle Of each one either TO
| grope into any expression which might he
| fntelligible to others or to receive the
thoughts of others without such bond Of COM
4 munication What a lingering procedure
| II would be to gain or to retain the thousand
| concepts which now, through IL, confront
| us at the very threshold of our mental ac-
| tivity? So much doth the soul, through the
ear, drink in from our common mother
| speech.
| But there are other equally common ele-
ments which challenge us through tho same
sense organ, touching not 80 much the under
standing, as the deeper heart life ofour being.
The plaintive minor of the myriad autumn
insects, rising as an audible mist from dewy
| meadows and lanes the murmuring hum of
bees In the hedges and amidst the linden
bloom; the playful whispering Of the forest
leaves as they WOO the winged winds /; the
brook ''making sweet music with the
| enamelled stones;' the joyous song of the
mated birds the rush and roar of the noun
tain torrent and storm, and heavens thunder
GUS bass as II rolls echoing from the sombrous
clouds all this, and thousands more challeng-
Ing us all the seasons through, affect the soul,
drawing it into endless fields Of investigation
or into infinite realms Of imaginative medta-
ton.
If, then, through daily use by conversation
and study, we familiarize ourselves more and
more with our vernacular, and thus COM
mune with the thoughts OF men, so also
should we more and more familiarize our
selves with the voices of nature speaking to
us from every side throughout our lives and
thus commune with the rational, living soul
Of the universe
But the world of nature, which corresponds
throughout TO the world Of spirit which is
its source, is not apprehended by the spirit OF
man through the ear only. She has a Ian
guage addressed to the eye as well. She
finds an utterance not only In sound, but also
through forms and colors Of endless variety
and graduation, the mysterious power OF
which no one can fully fathom. ust imagine
for moment voiceless and blank earth, a
| mere barren emptiness stretching out before
| na ha stla pfd hrnn
world. How, ~ such chaos could we come
into any sympathy with it? How could IL
; touch us, and, while penetrating, thrill the
human spirit?
But add the hum of insects the song OF
birds the utterances OF the many-tongued
r waters and winds the voice Of Jehovah
breaking the cedars, and making them skip
like calf, and dividing the flames OF fire a
IL thundereth upon the waters and shaketf
the wilderness-and what q change How
q | near II comes to our soul How It reaches
, | into our heart, and takes hold Of the deepest
sympathies of our spirit Now add to this
t the varying forms of grace and beauty the
grass and moss the Towering shrubs and
ciambering vines the waving forests the
painted clouds the azure of heavens vault
the rosy-fngered dawn ! the crimson mis-
r mark how our whole being is drawn out ant
, | all our affections aroused into an anthem o
! rapturous thanksgiving.
D Now that we may tightly appreciate al
Z |
necessary that we take every opportunity Il
enter the woods and fields, and study nature
; I'm her own retreats tn catch with erect ea
a the first throbbings of spring, when tn,
I | foetid wild-turnips and liverworts bloom, o
, the shad. berry and the dogwood begin I,
whiten the bronzed hillside, or all the wind
{ ing wood-valleys are purpling with thu
I judas-trees to watch with keenest eye tn,
!. grass and softened moss, and gilded willow
. topsj TO come by an intelligent insight ant
D sympathizing love into close intercourse with
0 such blessed companions OF our life, and re
' ceive with susceptible spirit the thousant
lessons around us, whose proper COMING
0 fills the mind with profitable fore, and th'
:, | heart with ever increasing delight.
' Every child should come to know th'
flowers that frighted Proserpina lets fal
: from Dis's wagon.
"daffodiIs
That come before the swallow dares, and taxi
The winds Of March with beauty; violets dim
, Or Cytherea's breath"
Every child should be familiar with ou
= shadowy hills I; should know our trees, the
names, and forms, and uses
> The sayling pine the cedar proud ana tall
enel sais the dry
0 The aspine good for slaves; the cypress
should know the shrubbery through which
I, the pheasants whir, and in which thu
thrushes hide, and which, through sunny
summer, strew the mossy paths thick will
/, gold and porphyry should feel a hallowet
3 kinship with earth IA she reaches out from
the womb of silent darkness heavenwarc
into light and life.
5 In the vegetable world, the lower form
have but little individuality. They affect III
1 | in their general and massive character alone
The blade of grass or stem of moss catches
( | not the souls glance, but the lawn or meadow
or messy banks or brooks, and quiet ferny
hooks where the red partridge-berries nestl,
! ! and the arbutus hides her smiles. Yet tn,
impression Is strong and definite, and max e
itself felt at once in arousng our sympathy
5 In public parks and private yards, how softl
: the sunlight sleeps on the shaven lawn; anC
!. | how the grounds surrounding a school
building, II sodded and rightly trimmed, tel
at once of that delicate taste and sense o
beauty which should, and which does cultur,
the attention and heart Of childhood.
? Shrubbery, in tho scale of the vegetabl,
world, rises higher, and gains in its ascen
much greater individuality, and thus come.
nearer the sympathies of mankind. Tn,
| lilac, with its fragrant clusters shading tn,
nursery window, blooms on In the soul
. when, exiles from home, our gray hairs ant
trembling nerves show how near we are Il
the crumble and dust of the grave How
I many tender memories slumberlesss still, a
| once arouse, until tears dim our vision wher
, we linger again where "the juicy hawthorn
Q grows adown the glade" The sweet-brier
| by the woodbine porch, grows sweeter still a,
| 1t recalls the sainted mother who watched 1t.
D growth, and whose face Is now more precious