III. THE LEAF. 49 



of it, if you choose, is the first thing I want you to 

 note of it ; — the proportion of size, namely, between 

 the leaf and you. Great part of your life and cha- 

 racter, as a human creature, has depended on that. 

 Suppose all leaves had been spacious, like some 

 palm leaves ; solid, like cactus stem ; or that trees 

 had grown, as they might of course just as easily 

 have grown, like mushrooms, all one great cluster 

 of leaf round one stalk. I do not say that they 

 are divided into small leaves only for your delight, 

 or your service, as if you were the monarch of 

 everything — even in this atom of a globe. You are 

 made of your proper size ; and the leaves of theirs : 

 for reasons, and by laws, of which neither the 

 leaves nor you know anything. Only note the 

 harmony between both, and the joy we may have 

 in this division and mystery of the frivolous and 

 tremulous petals, which break the light and the 

 breeze, — compared to what, with the frivolous and 

 tremulous mind which is in us, we could have had 

 out of domes, or penthouses, or walls of leaf. 



8. Secondly ; think awhile of its dark clear green, 

 and the good of it to you. Scientifically, you know 

 green in leaves is owing to ' chlorophyll,' or, in 

 English, to ' green-leaf.' It may be very fine to 

 know that ; but my advice to you, on the whole, 

 is to rest content with the general fact that leaves 



