28 PROSERPINA. 



changed ; and yet be a crawling thing. It is quite as easy 

 to conceive plants moving about like lizards, putting for- 

 ward first one root and then another, as it is to think of them 

 fastened to their place. It might have been well for them, 

 one would have thought, to have the power of going down 

 to the streams to drink, in time of drought ; of migrat- 

 ing in winter with grim march from north to south of 

 Dunsinane Hill side. But that is not their appointed Fate. 

 They are at least all the noblest of them, rooted to their 

 spot. Their honour and use is in giving immoveable shel- 

 ter, in remaining landmarks, or lovernarks, when all else 

 is changed : 



" The cedars wave on Lebanon, 

 But Judah's statelier maids are gone." 



4. Its root is thus a form of fate to the tree. It con- 

 demns, or indulges it, in its place. These semi-living crea- 

 tures, come what may, shall abide, happy, or tormented. 

 No doubt concerning u the position in which Providence 

 has placed them" is to trouble their minds, except so far 

 as they can mend it by seeking light, or shrinking from 

 wind, or grasping at support, within certain limits. In the 

 thoughts of men they have thus become twofold images, 

 on the one side, of spirits restrained and half destroyed, 

 whence the fables of transformation into trees; on the 

 other, of spirits patient and continuing, having root in 

 themselves and in good ground, capable of ail persistent 



