fruitful Srees. 143 



and set to work ? Men question the value of studies 

 which are disclosing the very paths of prosperity and 

 of social health. They deem the germ-thoughts, the 

 theoretic seeds out of which the most conspicuous 

 advantages ripen for man, impractical and worth- 

 less. They are impatient of the doctrines which lie 

 at the very fountain-head of the world's best life, and 

 have no sympathy with men's efforts to maintain or 

 to find out truth, so long as it does not directly appear 

 how the truth can coin a dollar or relieve a pain or 

 fill an empty stomach. 



But I am wandering from what the winds and the 

 sunbeams told the trees, and making this humble 

 stump which has served me as a chair-back a veritable 

 pulpit. Let these words be numbered now, lest they 

 quickly drift into doctrine and bring reproach upon 

 the trees. Heaven knows they suffer enough at the 

 hands of men ; would that this discourse might help 

 to create a little more care for them in a wise way ! 



