LIVE NOT TO YOURSELF. 161 
their parent. I have lived for the eagle, which 
has perched on my top ; for the hummingbird, that 
has paused and refreshed its giddy wing, ere it 
danced away again like a blossom of the air ; for 
the insect that has found a home within the folds 
of my bark ; and when I can stand no longer, I 
shall fall by the hand of man, and shall go to 
strengthen the ship which makes him lord of the 
ocean, and to his dwelling, to warm his hearth and 
cheer his home. I live not to myself." 
On yonder mountain side comes down the sil- 
ver brook, in the distance resembling a ribbon of 
silver, running and leaping as it dashes joyously 
and fearlessly down. Go ask the leaper what it 
is doing. " I was born," says the brook, '' high 
up in the mountain ; but there I could do no 
good ; and so I am hurrying down, running where 
I can, and leaping where I must ; but hastening 
down to water the sweet valley, where the lark 
may sing on my margin, where I may drive the 
mill for the accommodation of man, and then 
widen into the great river, and bear up his steam- 
boats and shipping, and finally plunge into the 
ocean, to rise again in vapor, and perhaps come 
back again in the clouds to my own native moun- 
tain, and live my short life over again. Not a 
drop of water comes down my channel in whose 
bright face you may not read, ' None of us liv- 
eth to himself.' " 
Speak now to that solitary star that hangs in 
. 
11 
