The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1915-12-01
THE WALL
ny Or. FRANK CRANE
- Copyright. 1915. by Frank Crane)

mere Is Wall ABOUT my garden. Not
that ! want to, Keep people out, nor even
! that | object To their looking in; but
/ love wall for its spiritual significance.
The wall is of stone and high. Vines
cover it. Fruits sprawl upon it. Flowers
crouch at its feet.
| 1t is a symbol of knowledge, because
| II marks the bounds OF my piece of
earth, with which am familiar, separat-
| ing it from the wide. wide earth which
| can never know. For the essential TO
comfortable knowledge is not to know
what you know, but TO know where the
line is between what you know and what
you don't know.
Thus my wall is to me certainty.
Within it | feel like God in His world,
a cognizant master.
It is my defense against the over
whelming mystery all around 1t is to
me what creed is TO a believer, little
shelter against the infinite.
II is to my soul what covers are TO
book Who could endure book with no
beginning or end?
Human beings want a home. The in
stinct of our remote ancestors, which led
them to crawl back into their caveholes
at night, fingers in our blood. 1t is well
TO venture forth, 10 travel and see
strange ports; il is we'll to stand on the
mountain and view vast distances, to go
to the shore and feel the ocean that dips
beyond horizons. to gaze up at the in
tricate galaxies and burning super
worlds but afterward we must return
to our little square of earth; we must
have walls and a roof lest we perish OF
loneSomeness.
| know the sense Of property is ephen-
eral a while ago | was unborn and
owned nothing; little while and ! shall
go again into nothingness and own moth
/ ing: but life itself is but a passing phase,
and life functions in property. Even
/ those who boast Of possessing nothing
are tenacious of their opinions and have
high fences around their ego
Within my wall | play the king. !
am the darling of special privilege. None
can invade except ! open the door. II
Gatters my vanity. All have their vani-
ties, hot or cold, offensive or defensive,
Of person or Of possession; and surely
/ the least Objectionable is the smugness
that comes 10 him who pull radlshes
from his own soil and glancing around
sees the wall beyond which innumepable
Iradishes are no matter to him.
There are daisies i'm the fields but
I there are too many of them 1t Is my
wall that makes my garden daisies finer.
/ Also my marigolds are more golden, my
/ helotrope more odorous. my rose bush
as much dearer TO me than all possible
rose bushes. as my own children are
closer than the swarms Of China.
/ Herein. too. is liberty For real lib
ertv exists not in the absence but in the
presence Of limitations. No place are
YOU so bound as on the boundless sea.
Within my wall is true anarchy. ! can
do as please. can pull up or trample
down ali these plants if ! choose. | can
dance, or sing, or sit down. or smoke, or
make mud pies. Who cares? There is
the wall, 1t means TO me license for all
II my insanlties.
There is no liberty that counts except
liberty to act the fool, TO do things peo-
Die DO not expect you TO do. One can
7 be wise and proper and good anywhere;
loplv within his walls can ne be defIc1otts-
y unwise. hilariousIy Inconsistent - r -.
There is a boy | should never have
known had it not been for my wall. He
| is raggedy boy who climbs over and
steals my apples. They are green and
nuckery. vet he likes them more than
/ the ripe red ones over in the open pas
/ ture. which he is free TO take but 1t is
4 the wall that gives the exquisite flavor
Of outlawry TO mine | pretend not to
sec him he thinks he is foolng me; and
/ all the while he tickles me. There is
nothing so charming as TO give one pleas
ure and have him think you are his en-
envy. So both the boy and have sur
reptitous fun that the unwalled cannot
/ know.
/ A wall, a wall around my garden rear,
And hedge me in from the disconsolate
hills:
81 Give me but one Of all the mountain
rills.
/ Enough of ocean in It's voice J hear
-Santyana.