TILLERS OF THE SOIL. 
87 
purpose which never comes within the scope of their 
personal aims. What is it they are doing? They are 
tilling the ground. These jungles are as all the face of 
the earth was when Adam was still uncreated and there 
was not a man to till the ground. As then, so now, there 
often comes up a mist which waters the earth. But that 
is not enough. The ground must be ploughed, that that 
which is upon the top may go down and that which is 
below may come up. 
The opposite process is for ever going on. Every tree 
is silently but ceaselessly at work, thrusting its roots, like 
fingers, down into the earth, and separating and drawing 
up certain constituents of the soil, and conveying them 
through the channels of the trunk out to the ends of the 
branches and moulding them into leaves. The leaves will 
wither and fall to the ground ; or else cattle will eat them, 
or insects will feed upon them ; but they too will die and 
fall to the ground. 
Thus certain elements of the earth are for ever being 
brought up from the depths and laid upon the surface. 
This cannot continue. They must be taken down again 
and restored to the soil, or the foliage of the forest will 
soon fail and the earth will be barren as the moon. To 
