ESSAY UPON REDWCOD. 99 



cred obligations of love love to the generations of this 

 world's neighbors, to say nothing of the higher, ennobled and 

 grateful duty to the ALL-LOVING LORD on high. 



What if these be the timbered types and shadows of a 

 Nation's Day of its glory and its greatness ! for the day 

 goeth away * * * the shadows of evening are inclined! 

 the darkening death-pall cometh down over the land! 

 none to stay the spoiler and the waster, or say, " Thus far, but 

 no further." Thank heaven, there is yet left a little living 

 hope of the root ; as it were living fountains of another forest, 

 if we no longer go to add unto our consummated crimes, 

 misdemeanors, and shortcomings, the horrors of Sylvan in- 

 fanticide ! There is always a semblance of ganglionic confor- 

 mation of tortuous grain, involved and apparently errant 

 from its natural course of growth, at the foundation of 

 every new departure ; not necessarily irregular, revolutionary, 

 disorderly, nor chaotic, in the worse sense. Similar curl- 

 grained, bird's-eye remains we see at every fork or branch as 

 well ; therefore in redwood as in all animate and inanimate 

 objects everywhere and vital kingdoms more manifestly do 

 we observe this wonderful arrangement for this conservation 

 or modified reactive basis of vital force. This evolutionary 

 remnant, or reserve, finds its actualized types or analogies 

 universally existent. It is the equivalent of hibernation of 

 worms, reptiles, mammals, etc., etc. In short, wheresoever we 

 turn our eye, this arrest of directness of purpose we imitate 

 by artificial scarring; seen, also, in several cypresses, and in 

 great natural depreciation. Hence depauperation, nodulation 

 of roots, crowding native or new soils familiar to the pioneer 



