THOSE LITTLE WORKSHOPS 81 



energy with which the small root-hairs suck in water 

 and despatch it on its upward climb. Still, one naturally 

 asks why this remarkable energy, begun in the roots, 

 should last unbroken until the mounting sap has gained 

 a height of one or two hundred feet or more above the 

 ground ? Why does it not die down, long before then, 

 under the ceaseless drag of Earth's attraction? And 

 again, what is it which gives such energy to the tiny 

 hairs? — a force which, it has been said, goes beyond 

 that of a boiler in a steam-engine ! 



One great cause, and one alone, may be spoken of 

 as meeting the entire difficulty. Not as explaining it, 

 not as showing precisely how the work is done, but 

 simply as stating to what it is due. 



All this wonderful energy, this force of movement, 

 this persistency of work, this growth and change and 

 development, spring from the Life of the tree. That 

 Life is in its very nature active, energetic, aspiring — 

 which means that it must climb upward. It cannot 

 rest content where it happens to be. It must strive 

 after something ahead. It works and it must work, 

 just because it is Life. 



But we can no more explain fully the " how"" than 

 we can tell exactly how it is that the life in your body 

 keeps your heart and lungs working, day and night 

 unceasingly, without any effort of your will. We only 

 know that things are so. 



In the same manner we know that the life of a tree — 

 the life that is in the tree — accounts for the work of the 

 roots, for the energy of the root-hairs, for the rise of the 

 sap, and for countless other wonders. 



