24: PROSERPINA. 



of going down to the streams to drink, in time of drought ; of 

 migrating in winter with grim march from north to south of 

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

 are a t least all the noblest of them, rooted to their spot. 

 Their honour and use is in giving immoveable shelter, in 

 remaining landmarks, or lovemarks, 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 condemns, 

 or indulges it, in its place. These semi-living creatures, come 

 what may, shall abide, happy, or tormented. No doubt con- 

 cerning " 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 sup- 

 port, 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 transfor- 

 mation into trees ; on the other, of spirits patient and con- 

 tinuing, having root in themselves and in good ground, 

 capable of all persistent effort and vital stability, both in them- 

 selves, and for the human States they form. 



5. In this function of holding fast, roots have a power of 

 grasp quite different from that of branches. It is not a grasp, 

 or clutch by contraction, as that of a bird's claw, or of the 

 small branches we call ' tendrils ' in climbing plants. It is a 

 dead, clumsy, but inevitable grasp, by swelling, after contor- 

 tion. For there is this main difference between a branch and 

 root, that a branch cannot grow vividly but in certain direc- 

 tions and relations to its neighbour branches ; but a root can 

 grow wherever there is earth, and can turn in any direction 

 to avoid an obstacle.* 



* " Duhamel, botanist of the last century, tells us that, wishing to 

 preserve a field of good land from the roots of an avenue of elms which 

 were exhausting it, he cut a ditch between the field and avenue to in- 

 tercept the roots. But he saw with surprise those of the roots which 

 had not been cut, go down behind the slope of the ditch to keep out of 



