rney of recognition, not of protest. It is needful that
we do not forget.

We are not to enter into a course of reasoning with those whom we meet
on the way, or to pause to debate the definitions and analyses made in
books, or to deny any of the satisfactions of tradition. We shall be
ready for impressions; and possibly we shall be able to find some of the
old truths in unfrequented places.

_The habit of destruction_

The first observation that must be apparent to all men is that our
dominion has been mostly destructive.

We have been greatly engaged in digging up the stored resources, and in
destroying vast products of the earth for some small kernel that we can
apply to our necessities or add to our enjoyments. We excavate the best
of the coal and cast away the remainder; blast the minerals and metals
from underneath the crust, and leave the earth raw and sore; we box the
pines for turpentine and abandon the growths of limitless years to fire
and devastation; sweep the forests with the besom of destruction; pull
the fish from the rivers and ponds without making any adequate provision
for renewal; exterminate whole races of animals; choke the streams with
refuse and dross; rob the land of its available stores, denuding the
surface, exposing great areas to erosion.

Nor do we exercise the care and thrift of good housekeepers. We do not
clean up our work or leave the earth in order. The remnants and
accumulation of mining-camps are left to ruin and decay; the deserted
phosphate excavations are ragged, barren, and unfilled; vast areas of
forested lands are left in brush and waste, unthoughtful of the future,
unmindful of the years that must be consumed to reduce the refuse to
mould and to cover the surface respectably, uncharitable to those who
must clear away the wastes and put the place in order; and so
thoughtless are we with these natural resources that even the
establishments that manufacture them--the mills, the factories of many
kinds--are likely to be offensive objects in the landscape, unclean,
unkempt, displaying the unconcern of the owners to the obligation that
the use of the materials imposes and to the sensibilities of the
community for the way in which they handle them. The burden of proof
seems always to have been rested on those who partake little in the
benefits, although we know that these non-partakers have been real
owners of the resources; and yet so undeveloped has been the public
con