THE SOUL OF A TREE 7 



changed, by a process we can trace but cannot 

 understand, into root, stem, bark, leaf or other 

 part of their economy. They have no heart to 

 pump the fluid nourishment throughout their 

 frame from root to highest branch and twig ; 

 but other forces effect the needed circulation 

 of food. They have a rough, thick skin to 

 protect their sensitive, vital parts. Earth and 

 air, rain and sunshine, are needful for their 

 life ; and they vary in character with varying 

 habitat. They come near to us in that they 

 differ in sex ; and it is only by great restraint 

 that we do not speak of their love-making. 

 Ruskin, who in one place marks off the pathe-' 

 tic fallacy, by which we read ourselves into the 

 lower forms of life and even inanimate nature, 

 in another place says that *'all plants are com- 

 posed of essentially two parts — the leaf and 

 root — one loving the light, the other darkness ; 

 one liking to be clean, the other to be dirty ; 

 one liking to grow for the most part up, the 

 other for the most part down ; and each having 

 faculties and purposes of its own. But the 

 pure one which loves the light, has, above all 

 things, the purpose of being married to another 

 leaf, and having child-leaves, and children's 



