XXVII 
CONCLUSION 
377 
big battalions . “ Force,” the great law of nature, 
will assert its power, and rule. 
It is a relief to enjoy nature in her wild and 
unrestricted solitudes far away from the intrusion of 
mankind ; it is there that we see her in the fullest 
charms. Although we know that one species preys 
upon another, we do not feel it, as the painful scenes 
are not apparent; we see a giant trunk prostrated 
on the ground, covered with moss and lichens, and 
brightened by many-coloured fungi; we forget that 
these are preying upon the dead body of the once 
glorious tree. We remove the rotten bark, and 
disturb panic-stricken ants and beetles, together 
with the larvae of many other insects; it hardly 
occurs to us that they also are attacking the remains 
of a dead giant. A continual change is taking 
place. A bird drops the seed of a bo tree (Ficus 
religiosa) upon an ancient temple; it germinates, 
and by degrees the roots penetrate through a 
thousand unknown crevices in search of moisture 
and support. The young tree has determined 
to live upon the ruin of that temple; in the 
course of time the expansion of the growing roots 
splits and tears asunder the great mass of 
masonry. 
In the same manner, a seed of the bo dropped 
into the huge forked centre of some great forest 
monarch, which contains the first signs of rottenness 
within, quickly germinates, and takes complete 
possession of the old trunk ; it drives its insidious 
roots down into the very centre, and subsists upon 
