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WHY THE LEAVES FALL. 
By MAXWELL T. MASTERS; M.D. F.L.S. 
S CARCELY less wonderful than the gradual advent of the 
leaves in spring, is their successive disappearance at the 
close of autumn. In every age moralists and poets have found 
illustrations for their themes in the hopeful bursting into leaf 
of the tree in spring, or in the inevitable fate which in early 
winter breaks up the rich billowy masses of foliage, and sends 
a The sere leaves flitting on the blast.” 
It is remarkable how many analogies may be drawn between 
natural phenomena and the attributes of human nature. Now 
we find the life of man compared to a river, at another time to 
a glacier, it may be to a cloud ; but however apposite these 
comparisons may be, they are certainly not more so than is the 
analogy that may be drawn between the life of the leaf and that 
of the human race. Both have an innate power of growth, in 
both equally are the seeds of decay early implanted, which 
develop and fructify in due time, counterbalance the powers of 
growth, and ultimately bring the worn-out structure to the 
ground. 
u Like leaves on trees the race of man is found, 
Now green in youth, now withering on the ground ; 
Another race the following spring supplies, 
They fall successive, and successive rise ; 
So generations in their course decay, 
So flourish these, when those have passed away.” 
But now-a-days we are not content merely to draw analogies, 
however correctly ; we leave the poet to make his own use of the 
facts presented to him by adorning a moral or pointing a tale, 
but more prosaic people seek to know the why and the where- 
fore of the facts presented to their notice, and thereby, in spite 
of what may be said to the contrary, to increase the store of 
illustrations for the poet by opening up to him new marvels and 
deeper and more comprehensive analogies. 
