Conservation of natural resources; Country life; Earth (Planet); Natural resources; Nature
In the background is the countryman; and how is the countryman to make
use of the rain and the abounding soil, and the varied wonder of plant
and animal amidst which he lives, that he may arrive at kinship? We are
teaching him how to bring some of these things under the dominion of his
hands, how to measure and to weigh and to judge. This will give him the
essential physical mastery. But beyond this, how shall he take them into
himself, how shall he make them to be of his spirit, how shall he
complete his dominion? How shall he become the man that his natural
position requires of him? This will come slowly, ah, yes!--slowly. The
people--the great striving self-absorbed throng of the people--they do
not know what we mean when we talk like this, they hear only so many
fine words. The naturist knows that the time will come slowly,--not yet
are we ready for fulfilment; he knows that we cannot regulate the
cosmos, or even the natural history of the people, by enactments.
Slowly: by removing handicaps here and there; by selection of the folk
in a natural process, to eliminate the unresponsive; by teaching, by
suggestion; by a public recognition of the problem, even though not one
of us sees the end of it.
I hope my reader now sees where I am leading him. He sees that I am not
thinking merely of instructing the young in the names and habits of
birds and flowers and other pleasant knowledge, although this works
strongly toward the desired end; nor of any movement merely to have
gardens, or to own farms, although this is desirable provided one is
qualified to own a farm; nor of rhapsodies on the beauties of nature.
Nor am I thinking of any new plan or any novel kind of institution or
any new agency; rather shall we do better to escape some of the
excessive institutionalism and organization. We are so accustomed to
think in terms of organized politics and education and religion and
philanthropies that when we detach ourselves we are said to lack
definiteness. It is the personal satisfaction in the earth to which we
are born, and the quickened responsibility, the whole relation, broadly
developed, of the man and of all men,--it is this attitude that we are
to discuss.
The years pass and they grow into centuries. We see more clearly. We are
to take a new hold.
_The brotherhood relation_
A constructive and careful handling of the resources of the earth is
impossible except on a basis of large co-operation and of association
for mutual welfare. The great inventions and discoveries of recent time
have extensive social significance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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