LIKE A TREE 13 



in communities, in cities and nations, that we 

 may live together for our mutual good; helping 

 each other ; sympathizing with each other ; loving 

 each other ; being strong together, being tall and 

 symmetrical toward heaven together, because we 

 live together. It is the first great lesson of life ; 

 it is the last great lesson the world will learn, 

 that we must live together, because we need each 

 other. "Blessed is the man who is like a tree;" 

 that has learned how to live with his fellows, 

 sometimes swaying together, and clashing to- 

 gether with the storm's beat, yet living together 

 in peace, in helpfulness ! 



And then I will name to you another thing that 

 may seem to you a bit fanciful. It seems to me 

 that the man is like a tree, and the tree is like a 

 man, because each has found a kind of fellowship 

 with the stars, a sort of companionship with the 

 heavens. I wonder if this has come to you: 

 You have been alone in the twilight, the night 

 has come on, as you have been looking up 

 through the long and ever-lengthening vista of 

 the trunks ; it has somehow seemed to you as 

 if suddenly the great blue dome overhead rested 

 down upon the tops of the trees, and the stars 

 came out and played hide-and-seek in their 

 branches, and the leaves whispered back to 

 them, they talked to each other, the stars and 

 the leaves. 



Now, that is not merely fanciful ; it is only na- 



