The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-01-19
THE SEEDS OF WISDOM.

I was told not long ago of a planet filled with people of many descriptions, all of them seeking for the tree of life.
 They were almost all restless and un- happy, but there was an universal be- lief that if this tree could be found all trouble would disappear. Some had been looking for so long they were completely discouraged. Many even began to duubt whether there was such strained, anxious or despairing. <,
 Various methods of search were used. Some simple people thought 1t might be growing somewhere, but as no one ever found it, thoughts turned elsewhere Many said the tree of life was only a figure of speech; that, in reality, 1t did not at all resemble tree. So they sought for all sorts of possessions eag- erly, and those who failed to find them succeeded, often hating them. The successful ones were delighted for a time, but afterWa.rd feeling themselves no nearer happiness, they seemed soured. There were a great many who said, This cannot De found at all in any such way" It is necessary for men to become something different l themselves before they can recognize 1 it. It is a matter of personal attain ment," This idea grew very fast, but the difficulty was, very few could agree as to what 8. man should be. However, people gradually grouped themselves in classes who had similar ideas, and af- ter a time succeeded in making an in- age of what man should be like, and setting it up in their midst This cus- tom became very common and 1t was most interesting to study the different kinds of images. Some of them were simply very strong, muscular men, some intellectual, some aesthetic and so on. When they could not represent the attainInents through form, they wrote them out very fully beneath the image and then each man put one like l it in his own heart. Sometimes these so filled the hearts there was no room there for anything else. There were also very large number of people who said the Tree of Life was not on this planet at all, and that the only thing to do was to prepare to find it in another world. These people were numerous and many of their ideas were very helpful, for they paid more attention to virtues than attachments.
 l Now there were on this same planet some few people who really had found the Tree of Life but they were not gen. orally known, because they did not live among other men. They had various means of helping them better by living apart, a very important one being to send the seeds of the Tree of Life among men constantly. These were little luminous particles smaller than the tiniest grain of sand They were of such nature that they could only grow in the hearts of men, and they could not grow in hard hearts nor ir those which were too full of other things. There were always few mer receiving these and letting the Tree oi Life grow in their hearts, but they could not make many others believe ir them. At certain favorable times these seeds had been sent in quantities an6 generally with them a messenger to tel about them, but this had not happened for so long that many would not be. lieve 1t ever had happened. Among certain classes it was written under their image that 1t was ridiculous tc believe such thing possible
 This was something the condition O taffairs, when another favorable oppor- tunity came for the sowing of these 1u minous seeds which had at times in the rast been called "Theo-sophia," mean ing Divine wisdom, though they were lalso called by variety of other names So they were sent in abundance, at cer
 tain places filling the air with light and with them was sent messenger tt tell of them, for most people were tot occupied to see them and probabl! would not have recognized them if the! had, for they were looking for trees not for seeds. Those who first per ceived them ran eagerly hither ant
 thfther to show them to their neighbor and friends for one of the first effect
 of taking the seed was a desire to sllar
 them with others. But strange to say there was only here and there a persol