The Life of the Grasshopper 



in a state of harmonious and well-balanced 

 prosperity? A single seed would be enough; 

 and every year it gives forth bushels and 

 bushels. Tell me why, please. 



Shall we say that the cherry-tree, at first 

 very economical with its fruit, became lavish 

 by degrees In order thus to escape Its multi- 

 tudinous ravagers? Shall we say of the tree, 

 as we said of the Mantis, that excessive de- 

 struction gradually Induced excessive produc- 

 tion? Who would dare to venture on such 

 rash statements? Is It not perfectly obvious 

 that the cherry-tree is one of those factories 

 in which elements are wrought into organic 

 matter, one of those laboratories in which 

 the dead thing is changed into the thing 

 fitted to live? No doubt, cherries ripen that 

 they may be perpetuated; but these are the 

 minority, the very smxall minority. If all 

 seeds were to sprout and to develop fully, 

 there would long ago have been no room on 

 the earth for the cherry-tree alone. The 

 vast majority of its fruits fulfil another func- 

 tion. They serve as food for a crov/d of 

 living creatures, who are not skilled as the 

 plant is in the transcendental chemistry 

 that turns the uneatable into the eatable. 



Matter, in order to serve in the highest 



184 



