XIV 
it true that those who make a 
nation’s songs influence it more 
than those who make its laws ? 
I am tempted to think so when- 
ever I hear a line of “ Woodman, spare that 
tree ; ’ ’ and also to think that songs, like 
other forces, may work most vigorously in 
unprescribed directions. This homely lyric 
has not softened the hearts of our woodmen, 
and we might wish it daily sung to most of 
our public officials, from the congressman 
down to the village highway-commissioner. 
But I am sure that it has softened thousands 
of hearts which ought to have been steeled 
instead. I am sure it excuses to themselves 
thousands of owners of trees which are worth- 
less, or worse than worthless, and yet are 
piously preserved. I am sure it has helped 
to deepen the popular feeling that a tree, as 
such, is a sacred object, and that to cut one 
down which might be preserved is to com- 
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