LIKE A TREE 11 



magnifying- glass, and yet it is a perfect growth 

 all around the circumference of the tree. The 

 tree lived a perfect life ; that is why it grew ; it 

 lived an all-around life; no part of its life neg- 

 lected; not one side over-developed or under- 

 developed, but an all-round symmetrical life gave 

 to us through the long centuries the great tree, in 

 which we rejoice. And a man must grow like 

 that, if he will grow rightly and well and grow 

 for the ages. It may be so slowly that you 

 hardly mark progress year after year. Why care 

 about cataclysm or catastrophe? We grow by 

 the almost infinitesimal accretions of each day and 

 week and year, but we must grow all around the 

 circumference of our lives, that we may be per- 

 fect, as the circle is perfect, as the tree is perfect 

 that fills out the whole cycle of its life. 



Unhurried growth ! How the tree rebukes us. 

 Have you never leaned back at night to note the 

 stars looking down through the branches, the 

 leaves, and you have seen in the moonlight the 

 majesty of the tree? Or it may be at midday, 

 when you were busy about your camp, when you 

 were busy about a hundred things, trying to do 

 them all at once, and your plans crowded through 

 the day ; and the great tree beside you seemed 

 to smile down upon you, and say, "Why, why so 

 hurried ; why so fretful ? God takes time to build 

 a tree, and you, O, man, cannot build a life, ex- 

 cept as you take time. Hear me, O, man," cries 



