94: OSCILLATIONS OB VIBRATIONS 



Therefore, so long as the parts of the organism hold together, 



" Before decay's effacing fingers 

 Have swept the lines where beauty lingers," 



the functions of life, like those of the seed or the tree, may be 

 only suspended for a season, notwithstanding the presence of all 

 the other distressing indications of disease. 



Eeader, blame me not for this apparent digression. My object 

 in this book is to show " What may be learned from a tree." 

 The above lesson is an important one, and may perhaps be of 

 service some day ; for it is a sad truth, that inevitable separa- 

 tions await us all, and "hours of desolation are on the wing 

 coming swiftly and straight toward us, soon to overshadow us, 

 and hide from us the light of the sun."* 



But Winter has gone with its cold, darkness, and storms, and 

 Spring has come with its warm, bright sun and gentle breezes. 

 The stage of rest is passed. Reinvigorated nature awakens 

 from repose. Slowly emerges the plant out of the seed, and the 

 tree begins to grow. There is again continual motion and 

 activity amongst all the parts of the growing organs, the same 

 cycle of appendages of leaves, flowers, and fruits until both 

 arrive again, in the Fall, at the stage of rest. The tree is 

 deprived of the leaves and flowers of Spring, and of the fruits 

 of Autumn. Another ring of wood and bark has been formed, 

 and additions have been made of new growths to the extremi- 

 ties of its branches. These yearly vibrations of growth corre- 

 spond with the oscillations of the great pendulum of the universe, 

 and are faithfully recorded in the annual wood-rings visible on 

 the cross-section and in the bud traces left on the exterior bark 

 of the young shoots and branches. 



This however is not all ; for when we come to examine care- 

 fully the different parts of the tree, when it is denuded of its 

 foliage, we find that each branch, and branchlet, and shoot is 

 characterized by its own peculiar fluctuation. In the annual 

 wave of growth which pervades each shoot, there are three 

 distinct stages which offer themselves for consideration. To- 



* Discourses by W. H. FURNESS, Pastor of the First Congregational Unita- 

 rian Church, Philadelphia. 



