Many people, both during his lifetime and in the years that followed, found the theory of "immaterialism" or "idealism" espoused by George Berkeley, the 18th-century Bishop of Cloyne, a little hard to swallow. His view, as I understand it, was that the perceived world exists only by virtue of the fact that we perceive it; all objects, although their reality for practical everyday purposes cannot be denied, have their real essence only as a kind of projection on our cerebral screens.
Reaction to this novel concept was typified by a limerick, composed by the biblical scholar Monsignor Ronald Knox in 1913:
There once was a man who said God / Must think it exceedingly odd / If He finds that this tree / Continues to be / When there's no one about in the Quad.
A somewhat whimsical response to this thesis was penned by another writer in the same vein:
Dear sir, Your astonishment's odd; / I am always about in the Quad, / And that's why the tree will continue to be, / Since observed by, Yours faithfully, God.
Be that as it may, trees in the Quad, or indeed outside it, will be the cynosure of every schoolchild's eye tomorrow morning. Thursday, October 18th, 2001, will be the fifth annual "Tree Day", a yearly juvenile festival of oak, ash and elm intended to focus the attention of the nation's children on the economical, ecological and psychological benefits of trees.
Tree Day is organised by the Tree Council of Ireland in cooperation with the Department of Education. The idea is that once every year a full day in the primary school curriculum should be devoted exclusively to the study and direct experience of trees. In time, it is reckoned, this should ensure that each child who passes through the system will have had eight full days of intensive exposure, thereby gaining knowledge, understanding and an appreciation of trees, and also of the wider environment in which they play so key a role.
Prior to the day, every primary school in the country should have received an illustrated Tree Day Manual, in which more than 40 tree-related topics are discussed. These initially include subjects as diverse as "Why Trees are Planted" and "Trees in Poetry", and then progress to treat the subject in a more scientific way, suitable for older children.
Since the emphasis is on getting the children out of the classroom and into the schoolyard, the countryside or the forest, to observe all kinds of trees first-hand, virtually every tree in Ireland can, for tomorrow, be guaranteed a very firm and tangible existence.