THE SOUL OF A TREE 17 



pearance of rugged strength. Not every silver 

 birch is just as graceful as every other. And 

 individuals of the same kind grow very dif- 

 ferently under varying conditions of soil and 

 climate. How different also are trees according 

 to their age. They have individuality ; and, as 

 with men, their individual character is more 

 strongly marked at one time of life than at 

 another. Like us, too, they are creatures of 

 habit; and their habits become fixed; from 

 which quality of theirs many a moral lesson has 

 been drawn for the benefit of human saplings. 

 Have we not also fruitful trees and unfruitful 

 trees ; the latter, however, being fruitful, at 

 least, in homilies ? Also do not the trees aid each 

 other and injure each other ? Are not some of 

 them social in their habit and others markedly 

 individualistic? And when the trees live to- 

 gether in companies, must not each part with 

 something of its liberty as the price of social 

 companionship ? 



All this varied life of the trees went on for 

 long ages before there were any human eyes 

 to watch it, and human minds to wonder at it, 

 and human brains and hands to modify it. In 

 many ways men have varied the life of the 



