INTKODUCTION. 11 



exhibit this fact in its true light. Men have formed their 

 Utopia. They have closed their eyes on the existence of 

 natural evil ; they have denied that it is an inevitable ne- 

 cessity, and inseparable from the present condition of 

 things ; they have sought to make the world otherwise 

 than God has made it. They have promulgated erro- 

 neous schemes of philanthropy, which, having no foun- 

 dation whatever, either in truth or reason, can never do 

 otherwise than mislead and betray. They would over- 

 turn the granite foundations of the present social fabric. 

 Vain and futile attempt ! 



It is time that we looked these evils fairly in the face. 

 It is time that we admitted their existence as an inevitable 

 necessity, as part of the discipline of life ; that we re- 

 garded those grand compensatory forces which are ever 

 at work in the realms of Nature, and by means of which 

 these conflicting elements are made to harmonize, and a 

 just equilibrium brought about in the scale of human 

 happiness. When will man learn wisdom and truth 

 from the teachings of ^Nature ? When will he open his 

 eyes to those important practical lessons which may be 

 learned from the commonest object ? It is my inten- 

 tion, in this book, to show " What may be learned from 

 a Tree." 



We are about to write its life-histoiy. We shall trace it 

 from the first manifestations of vitality in the germinating 

 seed until the period of puberty, when it puts forth flowers 

 and fruit. We shall consider its phenomena after it has 

 passed its prime, and show that it has its appointed limits in 

 consequence of the same physiological law which governs 

 the development of its organism, equally with that of the 

 lowly plant which grows beneath its shade. We shall show 

 that the tree may be regarded as a vast community of phy- 

 tons, or plants, which co-operate in its construction and are 

 mutually dependent on and subservient to each other We 

 shall prove the individuality of these phytons which devel- 

 ope about the axophyte or stem of the tree and its ramifica- 

 tions or branches, by their difference of form and function, 



