Newark post., 1914-03-25
BY ISRAEL ANDIRON
ART AND EXPRESSION ON A FARM =.

Icreate new conditions. And the
first struggle he has is to overcome
that spirit of the soil which often
makes him too distinctively soil
man. He is too evidently a farmer
when he goes to town because he has
not resisted the spirit Of the toll he
follows. The remedy is to keep in
mind while at the commonest labor
the thoughts which belong to man.
As farm boy | read John Hall
fax, Gentleman" through in the in
tervals Of noon times which were
never over forty minutes long. |
read till late at night, many book
besides | seized, page from page,
from the grip of sleep and utter ex-
haustion, thinking of them as the
work went mechanically on in the
fields. Perhaps | would have made
a better farm hand had | thought
only as the team thinks, but | did
well enough and worked hard
enough to break my health for a
year or two at 81. | might have
done much better in my reading.
| did not for years after that get in
touch with books that tell of plant
life, of birds and bees and fruits.
But such things as | read Of this
kind, or Of any kind which interest
ed, | thought about and | observed
nature and the minds Of men for
myself. 1t is by such means we
save our souls from being plowed
into the soil and gathered into
barns and finally taken to market
or put in savings banks.
The hypnotism of repeated ac-
tions on the soil can best be met by
the alertness which we can train
our minds to make habitual. We
should know more of nature than
merely how to grow crops; though
if we know all we should to grow
good crops we shall know all nature
has to tell. Every truth is the con-
Germ of the farmer who succeeds.
We should begin very young to
know the classes of plants, the ori-
gins Of things we see about us.
Not crops alone, but the essentials
of unity with God are waiting
our observation when we seek to
the life i'll bird and
plant and animal The condition
of the man i'll an asylum who sees
and heeds nothing in an interested
way is sad; almost as much a cause
for tears is the condition of that
man who hears the song sparrow
only as a noise-maker, who treads
the sod where a million miracles,
hymns and prayers 90 on from
hour to hour in nature, and sees
only place where cattle may eat.
Woe unto the girl who entrusts her
love life to men who are to become
year by year more and more like
the vegetables and the farm ami
mails, taking their life forces indeed
from the soil but not aware of the
ftier life which man may know.
Thinkers are often poor men, but
the satisfaction of the mind, the
love life and the soul, are greater
than the satisfaction of the man
sion, the auto and the bank account. |
The first need Of womankind, as
we'll as Of man, is the heavenly |
bread which the thoughtful man
alone obtains.
We should study mankind, we |
should make our brains the rulers
IF the earth spirits. We should re-
fuse to bow ourselves under the
burdens of the fields so far we can
not look up in the midst of sweat
md toll and see the glory of life
manifested; hear the great anthem
II life triumphant over matter, see
Il every man and beast and plant
he revelation of the presence of
}od and His life and the promise
# the emancipation of those who
'etuse to be led captive by the toll
nd illusions of thn n1atoriaI would