26 TEANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



They mitigate against the fierceness of destructive winds. It is even 

 suggested by some that if our prairies in Illinois were well protected 

 by timber belts, we might still be growing some of the fruits that we 

 have long since ceased to produce. 



Trees also appeal to the love of the beauty within us. The 

 naked expanse of an arid plain is not an attractive sight. It rather 

 repels. But a stately forest, especially when in full foliage, and even 

 a single tree, has about it a charm. We love to look upon it. We 

 love to rest under its shade in summer, and to be sheltered by it in 

 winter. And if it was not a mistake in the Creator to bestow upon 

 mankind this love of the beautiful, we must concede that it ought 

 to be cultivated, educated, developed. And this faculty like every 

 other that we possess is educated by the presence of its proper ob- 

 jects. Our conception of the beautiful is not to be developed by the 

 presence of things that are ugly. The contemplation of naked 

 sand-hills and monotonous dunes does not make the mind more sen- 

 sitive to the beautiful or more appreciative of it. 



These benefits resulting from tree planting are appreciated by 

 adults. They are matters of scientific investigation. In some re- 

 spects it requires a matured mind to understand them. But they 

 can also be very largely appreciated by children. In some respects 

 much more fully by children than by adults. When we speak of an 

 influence exerted upon mind, that is an educating influence we are 

 speaking of something that has special reference to childhood. If trees 

 are a means of education to the human being they are specially 

 adapted to the child, for it is the child that is specially susceptible 

 to education. 



There are three ways in which trees may contribute to the 

 welfare of children at school. The first of these is, the furnishing 

 of a harmless and pure pleasure. There has been a theory that life 

 is successful in proportion as it is painful, that pleasure in every 

 form is to be shunned because its tendency is evil. But this theory 

 must be pronounced false. Its falsity is proved by the very world 

 in which we live. If this theory were true, the Creator m.ust have 

 strangely forgotten himself when he clothed the earth with verdure, 

 when he adorned the trees with blossoms, when he filled the air with 

 joyous sounds. The truth is, that man is invited to just as much 

 enjoyment as he will fit himself for. All nature is full of genial in- 

 fluences, influences calculated to awaken the purest pleasure. And 

 this for the adult as well as for the child, for him who comes forth 

 from the moral conflict scarred and defeated. And if this is true of 

 the situation in which the mass of mankind are placed, it ought to 

 be doubly true of the environments of childhood. It is therefore a 

 high duty incumbent upon every one who has any control over a 

 child's surroundings, to make these surroundings as pleasant as 

 possible. Let them be such as to awaken joy in the hearts of the 

 little ones. Let them be prepared for whatever trials life may have 



