Papa, some day when we
have more time we will come and sit here, shall we not?'
'So, then, here are two that you would spare from the conflagration
of the forest.'
'Oh, if I could but see it on fire, what a fine effect it would have
from the windows of the chateau; I should think only of my two
favourite oaks that I should be so sorry to see burning.'
'But all those you see equally deserve to become favourites, and
those you cannot see are quite as fine; they have each in their
different forms something that would interest you as much as your two
favourite oaks, the poplar, or our lime-tree.'
'I do believe that if I were to think of every particular tree that
composed a forest, it would take away all wish to see it burned.'
'That shows the necessity of consideration, my son, to avoid the risk
of forming unreasonable wishes, to put them in practice, perhaps,
when you grow up. You will probably never have a forest to burn, but
you may have men to conduct: just think what might be the consequence
of your forgetting that a district, a town, a community, is composed
of individuals, as you just now forgot that a forest is composed of
trees.
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