Wichita eagle., 1890-02-12
MY NEIGHBOR'S TREE.
LESSON TAUGHT BY CLOSE STUDY
OF THE MYSTERIES OF NATURE.

4 Ut 8UG w VI IVA OhC.
| As II Looks and Seems to Be in Sumnaes
| and Winter-The Glitter After = Spring
/ shower-The Thunder Storms and An
/ tums of Life-What They Mean.
| My room, which is in a high house. is
| on an even height with the crown of the
| tree opposite. For seven years this tree
| has been true friend to me. How often
| it has refreshed my sight! / have here
at different times jotted down what /
saw, thought and dreamed about it.
| Everything in nature has its fixed des-
| tiny-man alone has the worry. In ma
| ture there is a must" with man it is
''you shall, - and, therefore, there is a
| desire of freedom in the heart of man
kind, an endeavor to discern our natural
destination. Schiller says:
Seek you the highest the g-1atests the plant ca,
teach you it;
! What it is without win you should be willingly
The history of religion begins with di-
vine alteration Of certain trees, and this
culture became SO deeply rooted that it
was difficult to destroy it. The envoys
of Christianity had to apply the AK to
the holy trees to destroy this kind Of
worship.
The crown of the tree is too high to be
reached by regulating garden shears; it
rounds itself. Take lesson from the
tree, raise yourself up, man; learn to
stand high in yourself and the world
cannot mold you against your viii.
My tree stands in my neighbor's gar
den. 1t is not mine, and yet my pleas
ure is not decreased by the thought that
it is not my property. In the contem-
plation of that which is eternal there is
no mine and thine, and the pleasure
makes one happy and asks not from
whence it came.
1t is a withered tree during the winter,
and the thought arises, ''Who knows if
it yet lives? VIII leaves, branches and
fruit thrive again~ Spring-new OF re-
turning life-~iQ show.
After spring sun shower, how all the
branches glitter with the hanging drops,
which play in wonderful colors. What
an absorption there must be in the treesi
As soon as the rain ceases the finch ap-
pears and sings his song so gayly that it
seems the merry fellow had freshly
moistened his throat; and, indeed, it is
80, for man and bird sing better after
rain than in dry and close air.
The tree has its hours of animation.
Science has discovered that the life of a
plant is strongest under the influence of
the light, especially In the hours before
midday.
In April there was another snow. All
the branches were laden, all day long
the flakes whirled about, and it was all
still and quiet, except now and then a
complaint from the finch. A chill per-
vaded nature; even people in heated
rooms could not keep warm. 1t seemed
as if life and soul were In sympathy with
the millionfold sorrow of the scared
away birds and newly opened blossoms.
Whoever enjoys the life of nature must
also suffer with it. Natures life is harsh
and sharp, for alllife is q struggle. Even
if thousand blossoms, which have
scarcely bloomed, pass away, the devel-
opment of natures forces is overt1owing;
also in human life only little comes to
pass which blossoms in the mind as wish
and aspiration.
The tree takes in only fluid food, and
corresponds in this point with the first
life of the child or animal.
A child destroyinga a plaything which
is put together by strange hands is forced
to do SO by its curiosity to examine the
inner works. Neither can science act
differently than to follow natural life,
and by investigation it kills that taken
in hand. To be separated from nature
has tendency to make tender.
A hail storm has broken off branch
and another viii not grow again in its
place, but the tree may add new branches
and twigs, and the wound OF the torn
off branch may heal up.
A thunder storm IN the vicinity has
snapped of trees and uprooted others,
and when tree is down and its roots
are exposed 1t is not questioned how it
was thrown down and uprooted, but
how it could have existed and grown in
snch thin layer of soil. So it is with
many so called heroes; when they have
fallen one can scarcely conceive the pos
sibility Of their former state.
Autumn comes with such force that
you feel as though you were parting with
the dearest associates: thar you had not
fully returned their friendship, and that
you had not enjoyed them as you could
and should have done. The reflection
returns how you could have hoped in
the spring to take in the life of summer
in full draughts, and. having neglected
it, it is now too late; and 50 it will be IN
the autumn OF your life.
Cease renorse, which overcounes you
with the falling of the leaves. Wake up
and work In the new dag. Inasmuch s-s
the fallen leaf returns TO its stem, 80 Will
day passed return to you, but there
will be new leaves and new days as long
as life is allowed to you.
The stripping of the leaves seems TO
go on more quickly than the leaing, be-
cause the falling of the leaves is more
plainly visible, although the dying of of
the tree really lasts as long as its return
to life.
He who studies nature in winter is
nearer TO it than the season enjoying
ones, the city people. who only go into
the country when the table of nature Is
set Can one say Of such persons, who
are unfaithful TO nature: Yesterday
they seemed 50 near to you, and today
they act almost as though they would
ask: Who are you:' Yes, there are