TREE-FORM OUT OF ITS UNIT. 23 



gained, your success is only a question of time. You may 

 not succeed, but if you are a father, your children may, if 

 brought up properly. Recollect, a tree grows slowly, and 

 becomes a tree despite of storms. Besides, after all, my 

 friend, it is not one continuous storm, for there are occa- 

 siqnal glimpses of sunshine to help you along ! And you 

 would do well to look at the bright as well as the dark 

 side of things. But storms will assail you: many and 

 many another. It is part of the discipline of life. 



A tree extracts nutriment not only from wandering 

 winds, but from " riishing storms ;" the most violent 

 " thunder-showers" as well as the silently descending 

 dews have contributed materially to the building up of its 

 fabric. Except in winter, when there is no growth, no 

 vital movement, the course of the tree is upward and 

 onward in all kinds of weather. The wind may roar 

 among its branches, and the rain fall in torrents, but it 

 continues to grow despite these hostile influences, and 

 becomes a great tree at last. The very strength which 

 we admire in a tree has been extracted from a thousand 

 tempests. Storms have already tended to give it stability. 



It is ever thus with Nature's really great and noble. 

 They show to the greatest advantage when assailed by 

 storms. These only develope them. How frequently is 

 innate talent brought out through the fear of wanting 

 bread, the struggle to maintain a family ! Individuals so 

 circumstanced usually make the most valuable contribu- 

 tions to literature and the industrial arts. Man wo"uTct] 

 never exert himself, he would live a life of inglorious ease 

 and self-indulgence, he would do nothing to advance either 

 himself or his species, if there were no difficulties in his 

 pathway. He would retrogade, go back to primevaT 

 savageism. It is adversity which calls forth the nobility 

 of his nature, and makes him transform every obstacle into 

 a monument of his skill and strength. The wise and 

 noble-minded are ever brave and calm when enemies as- 

 sail. Conscious of the rectitude of their intentions, they 

 'meet the foe with boldness and decision of character, and 



