ioo March The Reed's Motto. 



so that botanists have called it Arundo Phragmites. 

 The moralists, on their part, have found the reed 

 extremely useful as an illustration of weakness and in- 

 stability, which may however save itself by a timely 

 yielding to forces that cannot be resisted. The reed's 

 motto is given with the neatest brevity by Lafontaine : 

 ' Je plie, et ne romps pas.' 



But although the reed in the fable had practically the 

 advantage over the oak that the wind uprooted, and al- 

 though worldly prudence always counsels us to do as 

 the reed did, and bend, still it may be observed that 

 the reed's lesson is not a very noble one, and that hu- 

 manity scarcely requires it, being only too ready to bow 

 before every breath that assumes the tone of authority. 

 And it may be observed, farther, that whatever political 

 liberty, and whatever intellectual light, may be at pres- 

 ent enjoyed by the most advanced nations of the world, 

 are due to exceptional men, who had much more of 

 the oak in them than the reed ; men who often paid 

 their resistance with their life, but who were not fail- 

 ures, since their example has bequeathed fortitude to 

 their successors. Pascal said, 'Lhomme nest qu'un 

 roseau, le plus faible de la nature, mats cest un rcseau 

 pensant! Surely, however, the thinkers are of robuster 

 quality than that. 



