Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c14.21

c14.21

Whatever views may be held as to the real meaning of these things, which some would call superstition, and some would call poetry, I am sure at least of this, that *no good will is ever wasted*, and that in the selfish or the loving attitude of men towards even a tree, there is some actual meaning, some real truth, some impulse, which has, in its own way, its own effect. It would be easy to say more, but this will perhaps suffice. Before turning, however, from this subject, to me of such great interest, I will throw a sop to the philistine, as follows: these feelings and ideas, whether they be regarded as ‘superstitious’ or not, have nevertheless a practical aspect; for the Indian objection to the unnecessary destruction of trees and forests, however sentimental, would have checked or prevented such a wholesale destruction of forest as has now, for example, turned whole districts in Ceylon into nightmare prospects of unending tea plantations, reduced the rainfall, and increased both the rate of soil erosion in the hills, and the liability of the lowlands to disastrous floods, at the same time necessitating so strict a preservation of the remaining timber that the husbandman is hard put to it to get the wood needed for fences, ploughs and the like, and the householder to get the timber needed for the massive construction of houses such as those of a century ago.