LITTLE THINGS BY Charles Robert Morrison

question. It was an imperfect leaf, curled and deformed, because it grew
too near a branch of the tree and was denied space and light and
motion. Its companions were large and well-developed and beautiful.
Not so this hapless one. From this illustration the author proceeds to
show that natural objects and man and nations are effected, shaped,
molded by surroundings. Where a man lives may determine what he is,
or what he may be.
The dwellers among the mountains are more independent and fearless
than those whose view of life is clouded by the density of the forest.
"Backwoodsman" is a term descriptive of surroundings. Take his
children to the broad expanse of the prairie, let them catch the
inspiration of mountain height, or feel through youth and manhood
the breath of old ocean's ceaseless swell--and a different class of
human beings will result therefrom.
2. Influences of the Past.
That which modifies, counteracts, and influences the more positive and
powerful things of the present, as they surround us and make us know
of their presence by their constant contact--are the little and yet large
things of the past.
Our names connect us with generations that have ceased to live, and yet
who live in us far more than we are willing to admit. Our speech
perpetuates a language replete with thoughts, opinions, ideas, not our
own in originality--ours only by heredity. Try to escape it as we may, the
shadow or the light of the past is here with us in the life of the present.
Because of the cosmopolitan spirit of our age, it is no uncommon thing
for an East Indian student to find his way into an Anglo-Saxon
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