THE LAST CHRISTMAS TREE
James Lane Allen
THE LAST CHRISTMAS TREE
AN IDYL OF IMMORTALITY
PORTLAND MAINE
THOMAS BIRD MOSHER
MDCCCCXIV
COPYRIGHT
JAMES LANE ALLEN
1914
TO THOSE
WHO KNOW THEY HAVE
NO SOLUTION
OF THE UNIVERSE
YET HOPE FOR THE BEST
AND LIVE FOR IT
THE LAST CHRISTMAS TREE
In a somewhat different and in a much briefer form The Last ChristmasTree appeared several years ago in The Saturday Evening Post.
THE LAST CHRISTMAS TREE
LIFE on this earth, my children, means warmth. Do not forget that:whatever else it may be, life as we know it is warmth. Every livingearthly thing is on fire and every fire is perpetually going out. Whenthe warmth, when the fire, which is within us and which is perpetuallygoing out, goes out for good, that is the end of us. It is the end ofus as far as the life which we derive from the planet is ourselves. Ifour planetary life is our only life, when the planetary fire within usdies out, all of us dies out. If planetary fire be not our only vitalflame, vital energy, then planetary[Pg 4] dust and ashes are not thecomplete end of us, not the last word of our terrible lovable humanstory. And if this be true, what next may come, what kind of storywill then begin with ourselves as its characters, what sort ofexistence for us will emerge from planetary extinction—that hasalways been the one greatest question, solicitude, hope, help, song,prayer of our race. It has never been more a problem than now when weknow more about many other things than we have ever known yet can findout nothing about this thing and were never so impatient of ourignorance.
But meantime life on this earth implies warmth and carries warmth:that at least we positively have found out though without knowing whatwarmth is. Every living terrestrial creature is a candle, is a lamp.The[Pg 5] rose is a perfumed lamp and when its bowl is without oil, thatinimitable lamp so silently built to give off for a little while a fewserene rays of vestal beauty as silently falls to pieces. The pinetree is a wild candle poised on a mountain table. The eagle is awinged candle burning to cinders on a peak of air. The albatross is afloating conflagration with all the ineffectual sea drenching its backand breast. The polar bear is a four-branch candle in a candlestick ofsnow. We human beings are laughing and tear-dripping candles,descending swiftly to our sockets. The sun and the stars are candles,whirling golden candles in the night of the universe, a long, longnight. One by on