36 IN THE ACADIAN LAND. 



a party to this transaction, and helps to carry 

 out the plan ; and we cannot well hold that the 

 tree exercises any will in the matter, but it 

 must do the proper thing when operated on, or 

 the drill is in vain. This tool implies the help- 

 ful co-operation of the tree ; with that under- 

 standing it was constructed, and the oak lives 

 strictly up to the terms, and becomes foster- 

 mother to the brood of an insect, that wounds 

 and poisons the wound to start the apple or 

 gall. This is the golden rule in practice where 

 one would least expect to find it. Say the 

 Hindoo scriptures : 



"Be like the sandal-tree that perfumes the 

 ax that cuts it ; but the oak, with injured cells, 

 pierced by this Cynlps confluent^ proceeds at 

 once to build a neat, safe house, and stores 

 around the eggs a concentrated food, and intro- 

 duces a bitter element into the apple shell, to 

 make it distasteful to birds and squirrels, and 

 grows horns and legs in the cradle of the grubs 

 in order that no prying jay or woodpecker shall 

 try to swallow it." 



Here we are dealing with small objects as we 

 are wont to measure them, but they are deeply 

 involved with great questions. Saturn and his 

 rings and moons in all their stately grandeur 

 are not invested with the reverent interest 



