Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-12-03
MOUNTAIN MEDITATIONS
By John Brock

BY JOhn Breck
tn HREE rainy days have given me cause
for serious meditations concerning
these craggy peaks which shut me in.
And the fruit thereof is the conclusion that
they were not made to plough. In several
million years they may develop a soil which
will endure the share. AS yet they are far
too immature. And man will do incalculable
damage if he tries to set them to work too
young.
Man is not as omniscient as he thinks. He
is clever enough at upsetting the balances of
nature, but very helpless when it comes to
repairing his mistakes In this case, having
filled New England with abandoned farms,
he brings the self-same methods to the sunny
California hillsdes, cOnceited that what lit
tie he has learned there will stand him in
good stead here Then he picks a nice up
land slope, facing the south, grubs up the
chaparral, and plants him an orchard Does
he stop to observe that the slimpiest natural
vegetation is found here. Oh, no. For in the
east, where growth was mainly a matter of
sun and the earth was rich enough in veg
etable mould to hold moisture of itself, that
south slope would drain off the frOsts and
all would be, we'll
But here it is different. Vegetation does
better on the slopes protected from the sum-
because vegetation depends on moisture.
When he grubs out the chaparral roots from
the hilltop he removes his only means of
conserving that moisture and leaves the
ground bare to every drying wind. Worse
yet, he leaves it bare to the driving rains,
for the newly-pulverized rock lacks those
generations of decomposed vegetation which
are necessary to make a cohesive soil. Con-
sequently by the time his orchard should be
producing most of its plant food has leached
away and his tree roots search in vain
through the crumbling sand. And all be-
cause he knows too much to learn why the
latest acorns grow farthest down the hill.
AT,xx J, f1 nn1 anf hn hV1rY in
to me who am footloose as the birds to seek
whatever spot lies sweetest in the sun, or
watts the most alluring fragrance on the
evening breeze But life is just that much
broader to me than :. needs be to them that
an old message of another land which flowed
with milk and money keeps ringing through
my thoughts. That land is desert now
wonder how much man has to answer for
in the country round about Jordan?"
1.-THE hills, whence my strength cometh"
is no mere figure of speech in very literal
sense. For it is the richness they distill
from sunlight and shower that makes the
strength of the fertile valley soil. The val
leys are for them who wish that richness.
And leave the sleeps to be harvested by
flocks and herds, which only hasten natures
processes.
Leave them to those who find that great
er strength their sOlitudes prOduce-the
power to stand alone, to live their lives, and
think their thoughts without human COM
and confederation. In the town
a man seems timid about any conclusion
to his thoughts which has not the approval
of his fellows, or else he lets a certain de-
fance of general opinion get the better of
his judgment In these solitudes he makes
his decision to the best of his own native
ability, and there is an end to it as far as
he is concerned His conclusion may be err
ratio, being original and bearing the tinge
of his particular personality, but at the least
it is the product of honest effort, and at the
best it is wisdom.