The Lark.A GERMAN ALLEGORY.Inthe balmy morning of a spring day, a farmer walked with his son into the field. The cool morning wind played with the silver locks of the old man, and lifted the blooming stems of the field, so that they appeared like a cloud over the waving grain.And the old man said, “Behold how active nature is for our good! With the same breath which cools our cheeks, she makes our fields fruitful, so that our barns are filled.“Eighty years have I witnessed this, and still it is as pleasing to me as though I saw it to-day for the first time. It may easily be the last! For have I not reached the limit of human life!”Thus the old man spake. Then the son pressed his hand and was grieved in his heart.But the father said, “Why do you mourn? Behold, my day is ended, and my evening has come. If a new morningis to break upon me, it must first be night. But it will appear to me like a night of summer, cool, and lovely, when the evening twilight melts into the twilight of morning.”“Oh my father,” said the son, “how can you speak so composedly of that, which will be to us the cause of severe affliction? You have given me an emblem of your death. Oh give me an emblem of your life, my father!”Then the old man replied, “That I can easily do. For the life of a farmer is simple, like nature, which surrounds him. See the lark yonder; do you observe how it arises out of the grain-field singing! It does not soar so near the farmer for nothing! For it is the emblem of his life.“Behold, it is born and matured in the lap of maternal earth, and feeds itself in the nourishing furrow. Among the waving stems it builds its nest and hatches its eggs, and takes care of its young. And the animating exhalations of the ground and the green field strengthen its wings, and the voice of its bosom. But now it arises towards heaven, and looks down from above on the stems and grain, and the tender mother, and upwards at the light, which rears the stems, and in the cloud, which sends dew and rain on the earth. As soon as morning begins to dawn, it is on the wing, to salute the early messenger of approaching day. And when the evening sun is sinking below the horizon, it rises again to drink of his last celestial beams. Thus it lives a two-fold life, the one silently in the still shade of the nourishing furrow and the green stems, and the other, singing in the bright regions of a higher world of light. But its two-fold life is only one. For behold, it rises only to descend, and descends only to rise again!”Thus the old man spake. And the son fervently pressed the hand of his father, and said, “Ah yes, my father, such has been your life! Oh, may it be a source of joy to us for a long time to come!”Thereupon the old man replied, “The clod is too heavy for me! Why do you envy me the undivided life of pure harmony and brighter light?“The day is sultry. Come, let us return home.”
A GERMAN ALLEGORY.
Inthe balmy morning of a spring day, a farmer walked with his son into the field. The cool morning wind played with the silver locks of the old man, and lifted the blooming stems of the field, so that they appeared like a cloud over the waving grain.
And the old man said, “Behold how active nature is for our good! With the same breath which cools our cheeks, she makes our fields fruitful, so that our barns are filled.
“Eighty years have I witnessed this, and still it is as pleasing to me as though I saw it to-day for the first time. It may easily be the last! For have I not reached the limit of human life!”
Thus the old man spake. Then the son pressed his hand and was grieved in his heart.
But the father said, “Why do you mourn? Behold, my day is ended, and my evening has come. If a new morningis to break upon me, it must first be night. But it will appear to me like a night of summer, cool, and lovely, when the evening twilight melts into the twilight of morning.”
“Oh my father,” said the son, “how can you speak so composedly of that, which will be to us the cause of severe affliction? You have given me an emblem of your death. Oh give me an emblem of your life, my father!”
Then the old man replied, “That I can easily do. For the life of a farmer is simple, like nature, which surrounds him. See the lark yonder; do you observe how it arises out of the grain-field singing! It does not soar so near the farmer for nothing! For it is the emblem of his life.
“Behold, it is born and matured in the lap of maternal earth, and feeds itself in the nourishing furrow. Among the waving stems it builds its nest and hatches its eggs, and takes care of its young. And the animating exhalations of the ground and the green field strengthen its wings, and the voice of its bosom. But now it arises towards heaven, and looks down from above on the stems and grain, and the tender mother, and upwards at the light, which rears the stems, and in the cloud, which sends dew and rain on the earth. As soon as morning begins to dawn, it is on the wing, to salute the early messenger of approaching day. And when the evening sun is sinking below the horizon, it rises again to drink of his last celestial beams. Thus it lives a two-fold life, the one silently in the still shade of the nourishing furrow and the green stems, and the other, singing in the bright regions of a higher world of light. But its two-fold life is only one. For behold, it rises only to descend, and descends only to rise again!”
Thus the old man spake. And the son fervently pressed the hand of his father, and said, “Ah yes, my father, such has been your life! Oh, may it be a source of joy to us for a long time to come!”
Thereupon the old man replied, “The clod is too heavy for me! Why do you envy me the undivided life of pure harmony and brighter light?
“The day is sultry. Come, let us return home.”