28 Proceedings oe the 



life, he led also, of necessity, a model life. The truth 

 is quite different : Virtue, like all plants of price, needs 

 cultivation; forests need the eye, the mind, and the 

 heart of man. Instead of being full of the most 

 beautiful and useful trees, the wild forest offers, by 

 comparison, a prodigiously small quantity of good 

 trees ; many have outlived their period of use, and they 

 prevent the growth of others; many have grown 

 crooked; wicked ones have injured the righteous. 



Now the question is, which sort of forest is to be 

 favored here? It is a great thing for this country to 

 know what your intentions are, and what you mean 

 to do. In doing it, in fulfilling your duty as good 

 foresters, it so happens that you will, at the same time, 

 second what is uppermost in the mind of every good 

 American — that is, to help, so far as is in you, to the 

 spreading of civilization. 



