UNDER THE APPLE-TREES 



not a matter of chance; other than physical causes 

 have determined the journey. Their desire to make 

 the journey has its physical basis, but the journey 

 itself was not inevitable like the flow of water down- 

 hill, or like the geometric forms of the rocks them- 

 selves. A psychic principle played a part. 



Man's freedom is not that of the wind which 

 bloweth where it listeth, but freedom to go against 

 the wind, or to conquer and use the forces that 

 oppose him. There is no movement in inanimate 

 nature that typifies human freedom; only living 

 beings withstand and turn to their own account the 

 forces of dead matter. 



Man's work is geometric; he runs to angles and 

 right lines; in other words, to parts and fragments. 

 The circuitous method of Natiu-e — her waste, her 

 delays, her confusion, her endless seeking, her sur- 

 vival of the fittest, her all-around-the-horizon activ- 

 ities — he seeks to avoid, because he is not con- 

 cerned with the All, but with a part. He aims at 

 victories now and here, and not in the next geologic 

 age. He would eliminate the element of chance. He 

 does not wait for the winds and the floods to sow his 

 seeds or plant his trees, or for the storms to trim and 

 thiQ his forests; he takes short cuts, he saves time 

 because he has not all time; he selects and abridges 

 and cuts out, and reaches his ends by direct, geo- 

 metric methods. 



The red-thorn in the pasture is constantly 

 258 



