SOCIETY OF CENTRAL ILLINOIS. 209 



on old growths we will have new forms of the original kind; but we 

 must ever aim to improve, to change the form, but not alter the 

 value. For nature is no tender mother, and always punishes those 

 who infringe on her laws. Some of our plants grow so rapidly that 

 we say we can almost see them grow. Watch the blossoming of the 

 night-blooming cerens and leaf after leaf unfolds before your very 

 eyes, yet, you cannot see them move, but you feel as though you 

 were in the presence of some mysterious power, for a hand unseen 

 is scattering its beauty and fragrance like a summer rain, it remains 

 a perfect flower for a short time, then it draws its beautiful white 

 foliage around it, drops its head before a mighty power and sinks 

 away. So it is with all growth, each one has its beauties and per- 

 fection, but require a longer time to mature and fade. It is in 

 adapting itself to circumstances and surroundings that nature's 

 growths become beautiful and useful to man. The universal law of 

 growth belongs to man as truly as it does to the humblest plant or 

 flower — everything that has the power of growth, from a grain of 

 wheat to a child or man, must have culture and nourishment. For, 

 like garden flowers, the little ones grow and they must be nurtured 

 and trained with the greatest care, and warmed by love's sunshine, 

 and hatched in its dew, they will bloom into beauty like roses rare. 

 The little ones are like fertile ground ready for seed, each impression 

 ready to take form, and his growth naturally leads him to satisfy his 

 greatest desires, and to shun the least pain. So that the pruning- 

 knife of virtue and right must ever be in use to give tone and form 

 to the character by making it of service to itself and others. 



"What the leaves are to the forest, 

 With light and air for food, 

 Ere their sweet and tender juices 

 Have been hardened into wood. 



"That to the world are children; 

 Through them it feels the glow 

 Of a brighter and sunnier climate, 

 Then reaches the trunks below." 



In our lives, or in plant life, there is plenty of room for up- 

 ward, and only a little room for downward growth. If we follow 

 our lower desires, and they are not controlled, then poverty and dis- 

 grace hedge us around; for retribution soon follows a low action, as 

 the spiritual law of gravitation will, sooner or later, draw all spirits 

 to their true level. We can not always judge of a man from his ex- 

 terior, for heaven sometimes surrounds a rare character with ungain- 

 liness, as the "burr that protecteth the fruit," so that it may attain 

 its full growth and development before being disclosed to view. 

 This is true of some, but we can not say of all, for we will find that 

 "wheat and tares will be strangely mingled in the harvest field of 

 time," and those possessing higher desires must be cultivated, guided 

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