WHAT IS PROPERTT? 45 



sixty or eighty feet It was this same system that made him 

 say, "At the sight of men, animals are struck with love or 

 fear." He left out a third impression, which many animals 

 experience at the sight of man — hunger, and a great desire to 

 eat him. 



Ask the first passer-by, provided he be of the country, to 

 whom that fine acacia belongs] He will answer you, without 

 hesitation, "That acacia belong-s to M. Stephen." In fact, I 

 have agreements, in due form, that this acacia is mine. Now, 

 is not this a cruel sai'casm? This tree is more than a hun- 

 dred years old, and has preserved all its vigour and its 

 youth; whilst I — I am thirty-six yeai-s of age, or rather 

 there are already of the mysterious number of years which 

 have been granted me, or inflicted upon me, thirty-six which 

 I have spent, and which I no longer have. I have already 

 begun to die : I have lost two teeth ; and lengthened vigils 

 fatigue me. This tree has seen three generations bom and 

 die beneath its shade : if I become very aged, if I escape 

 accidents and diseases, if I die fi:om having Uved, I shall see 

 it flourish thirty times more; and then, some of the children 

 who EU-e now playing at marbles, and whom we are teaching 

 Latin in spite of themselves, whom we now coax with sugared 

 bread and butter, but who will then be men, will shut me up 

 in a deal box, and place me by the side of others under the 

 earth, in order to make more room for those who ai'e upon 

 it, until another generation which they have brought up for 

 that purpose, shall squeeze them into similar boxes, and place 

 them beside us. 



And I call this tree mine ! Ten more generations wUl live 

 and die beneath its shade; and yet I call this tree mine. 

 And I can neither reach nor see that nest which a bird has 

 built upon one of its highest branches. I caUthis tree mine, 

 and I cannot gather one of its blossoms; and yet I call this 

 tree mine! 



Mine! 



There is scarcely anything which I call mine which will 

 not last much longer than I shall: there is not a single 

 button of my gaiters that is not destined to survive me many 

 yeai-s. 



What a strange thing is this property of which men are so 



