10 INTRODUCTION. 



and cultivation render almost necessary to his happiness, are 

 the product of the industry of the toiling multitude. The 

 poorest laborer contributes his share to that abundance 

 which dayly covers his table. 



Civilized society, notwithstanding all the evils with 

 which it is necessarily accompanied, has its foundation in 

 natural law. It is my design in this work to try to exhibit 

 this fact in its true light. Men have formed their Utopia. 

 They have closed their eyes on the existence of natural 

 evil ; they have denied that it is an inevitable necessity, and 

 inseparable from the present condition of things; they have 

 sought to make the world otherwise than God has made it. 

 They have promulgated erroneous schemes of philanthropy, 

 which, having no foundation whatever either in truth or 

 reason, can never do otherwise than mislead and betray. 

 They would overturn the granite foundations of the present 

 social fabric. Yain and futile attempt ! 



It is time that we looked these evils fairly in the face. 

 It is time that we admitted their existence as an inevitable 

 necessity, as part of the discipline of life ; that we regarded 

 those grand compensatory forces which are ever at work in 

 the realms of Nature, and by means of which these con- 

 flicting elements are made to harmonize, and a just equi- 

 librium brought about in the scale of human happiness. 

 When will man learn wisdom and truth from the teachings 

 of Nature? When will he open his eyes to those im- 

 portant practical lessons which may be learned from the 

 commonest object? It is my intention, in this book, to 

 show " What may be learned from a Tree." 



We are about to write its life-history. We shall trace it 

 from the first manifestations of vitality in the germinating 

 seed until the period of puberty, when it puts forth flowers 

 and fruit. We shall consider its phenomena after it has 



