The United Seas Part 8

BALBOA

Can a man discover a sea?

Can a human eye that's sealed by a night and sun-dazed by day discover a sea?

Discover, O discover a far-going, a far-coming endless, sky-meeting, infinitely finite sea?

Could a Balboa discover a sea?

Yes-- A dew-drop can orb a sun.

A telescope can enfold the stars of a sky.

A pure heart can incarnate G.o.d.

And an eye opened by fate, visioned by providence, looking out from a Panama peak can discover an endless sea!

And great explorer--could you arise and speak-- How did you feel when you discovered a sea?

Did you feel like a babe first opening its eyes from marge to marge on heaven's blue skys?

Did you feel like a mariner sailing the ship of the Earth out through the gates of the dawn?

Did you feel like a soul just escaping from its clay out into the joy of the freedom of s.p.a.ce into a home built from the light of the suns?

Looking, looking, looking far outward, how did you feel when you first saw the sea?

Descending, walking towards the sh.o.r.es, approaching the waters; how did you feel when, with the ineffable shock of a glorious discovery, you first touched the sea?

And great explorer--could you but speak-- What would you say to a whole coast with pilgrims from all the world inquiring of thee?

What would you say, standing now at the mingling of two vast seas.

Looking west, west, west until west becomes east, Looking east, east, east until east becomes west, You could not declare consistently that this is for England, for Germany or America alone.

But inspired by the thought of the hour, we feel sure you would exclaim: "I--the first to touch both the hemispheric waters-- Hear me, all nations, O hear me, Claim the intermingling oceans for 'The Republic of The United Seas.'"

Yes a man can discover a sea and also cross a sea And also chart a sea and even unite the seas, And civilize and uplift all the people in the nations bordering and tributary to their sh.o.r.es.

Made in the image of G.o.d, a little lower than the angels.

He can gain full dominion over its wide flowing waters, And on the pillars of courage build essential, earthwide democracy.

Strong men, this, then is the hour's decree!

Look upward in faith, move outward in service From the harbor of the present to the wide-emanc.i.p.ating future that is to be.

A NEW INSPIRATION FOR LITERATURE

A new inspiration for literature is at hand. The times, with its mighty impetus for world movements, more than ever demands a cla.s.s of literature that has at its heart the world consciousness. And the man that is to write the literature, it seems to me, must familiarize himself with three master-minds:

Walt Whitman, who chatted in terms of world democracy and whose spirit was as readily attuned to the earth as to the dew drop and flower.

Homer, the blind bard of Greece, the masterful interpreter of the power of the oceans, who talked about the seas as easily as the ordinary man converses about village events.

Christ, the child-like but universal minded Leader of the human race, who has quickened men to move toward the essential unity of the races and nations.

Literature can now come to its own as never before. Writers of fiction now have a new and superb opportunity of introducing a majestic back ground to their stories. Men everywhere feel the lure of a new inspiration. They want to talk and write in grander terms, bringing new glory to the simple and common place. And they are sure to break forth in the song of a better literature, orchestral with the spirit of world consciousness and broadly sympathetic with the yearning for essential world democracy. Commerce, science and religion are active in world movements, and what a mighty help it will be toward the realization of the ideal when many writers of fiction and poetry, as well as of history and politics, begin to take advantage of this opportunity. I can think of no higher calling that can engage the attention of man than that of trying to express the inspiration of these days in a worthy literature; which shall be majestically spiritual, and will tell what the unscaled eyes see, microscoped and telescoped to find the message of nature and history thrilling with a divine life.

And when the ma.s.ses who have not had the opportunity to travel, catch the spirit of a world patriotism and learn to think and talk in world terms--interested not only in their city, their state, their nation, but also in their world movements,--then a world government unifying the nations will be more easily formulated. I say, when the people once glimpse the vision of world peace, world harmony (or democracy) in its full grandeur, a spirit will be aroused that all the warring kings and illegitimate trusts on earth cannot check! David Starr Jordan well says in a most capable and thorough series of articles on "How to End War"

that "people under the stress of immediate excitement might vote for war, especially if told of some vicious aggression." How true that is!

And we should also add that there is a cure, a subst.i.tute for this false excitement. For the excitement about war is only coa.r.s.e vaudeville in comparison with the n.o.ble pa.s.sion that takes hold of men's lives when they become interested in the struggle and movements that make for world harmony.

And to create this higher enthusiasm--which can never be quenched when once it is kindled in a man's heart--the constructive workers need the co-operation and help of the deepest and clearest visioned men of letters in every nation. The task of reconstruction will be so stupendous that the orator, the press, the writer, must be enlisted to bring the vision to the people so that they and their rulers can be more readily led by the constructive international statesman into essential world democracy.

And it is the uniting of the two hemispheric seas that so irresistibly suggests the essential union of the nations. There never was an Exposition held, nor ever will be, affording such a vision of world unity; not only because of the union of these two oceans a.s.sociated with this event, but also because of the world war, which cannot avoid being interpreted by some of the most penetrating thinkers as the darkness before the dawn. Any man of clear vision who stands with Goethals at the mingling of the two hemispheric bodies of water looking through the clouds of war cannot help but speak prophetically. The world has been brought together geographically. It will also be brought into essential harmony politically and racially. The new proximity of the nations created by the ca.n.a.l demands it. And above all, it is the inevitable drift of things. Blessed then are the people that have the vision! And twice blessed are those who give it to others! And above all, blessed are the men who are laboring to make the vision a reality!

IX

Sea to Land

FROM SEA TO TREE AND FRUIT

The following two chapters were prepared for special occasions commemorative of typical California life. The one on "The Olive in Biblical History" was written by the author in compliance to a request from "The California Ripe Olive Day a.s.sociation" to be used in the observance of the first California Ripe Olive Day, March 31st, 1915, at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition.

The chapter on "The Modern Parable of the Orange Tree" was delivered as a special address at Porterville, California, just previous to the beginning of the harvesting of the golden fruit in that section, and is in keeping with "Orange Day" as observed at the Exposition.

And it is well for us to close the book with these chapters for the world view only helps us to appreciate the inland beauty more, and the valleys with their restricted vision only prepare us in return for the world enterprises again.

THE OLIVE IN BIBLICAL HISTORY

In the Old Testament times the olive was recognized as the "fruit of fruits." But during the hurry and rush of Western progress a gross oversight has been committed, especially on the part of the American people, in failing to fully appreciate its value; and as a result the olive has not as yet gained its true leadership here among the elect of the trees, composed of the orange, pear, apple, pomegranate, fig, and date.

But the oversight has been discovered by the pioneers of the olive industry in America, and the signs of the time indicate that the olive will be known here as it was in the Holy Land. And, with the unprecedented developments in the ripe olive industry, it has an opportunity of becoming even more favorably known than ever before.

By a careful study, recall the place that the olive held in the old Promised Land and you will get a faint idea of what we mean by the rediscovery of the olive in this new Promised Land situated here on the coast of our Western empire.

Where the olive originated, we do not know. Some think in Syria. Others are not afraid to say that it is as old as man himself. For not only did it grow previous to the flood, as is indicated by the dove bringing an olive leaf to the ark. But some actually maintain that it was one of the trees that grew in the Garden of Eden, wherever that may have been. And whether such an a.s.sertion is far-fetched or not, there is absolutely no reason why this wonderfully fruitful tree should not have been one of the very first trees appearing on the globe for the sustenance of human life.

But wherever it came from, of this Bible students are absolutely certain--that it was the most popular tree in the Promised Land.

Indeed, it seems to have been one of the inducements that led the children of Israel escaping from Egyptian captivity to move toward Canaan, the Land of Promise with an irresistible expectancy. For the Promised Land that they were to enter is described--a description which would most accurately apply to our own California--vividly in the Bible as follows:

"For the Lord thy G.o.d bringeth them into a good land, a land of brooks and water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills. A land of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, of olive and honey."

And not only were these freemen from Egypt encouraged by the fact that they would find the olive with other trees flourishing in the Promised Land; but they were also commanded, according to the author of Deuteronomy, to recognize its superior importance and cultivate it everywhere, in these clearly put words: "Thou shalt have olive trees through all thy coasts." And today the very names of different localities in Palestine, such as the Mount of Olives and Gethsemane--that is, Gath-s.e.m.e.n, which means the "oil press"--indicates the love of those people for the beautiful olive groves, which gently nodded at each other across roads and lanes when wooed by the winds, even as they do in California, this newer Land of Promise.

No one saw how conspicuously and romantically the olive was a.s.sociated with the early Bible history of these people, as well as the prophet Jotham, who spoke the famous fable of the olive--in which he unmistakably infers that people should recognize it as the most important of the fruits--in these striking and beautiful words, found in the book of Judges: