48 
LESSON OF THE OAKS. 
■ silence. Since when has it been planted here ? Ah, 
what ages ago, since, despite its hardness, the rain has 
succeeded in excavating it! No other force has pre¬ 
vailed against it. Such as it was, even so it is; and 
thus it seems to say to the heart, “Persevere !” 
Apparently it should be strong enough to exclude 
all vegetable life. But the heroic oaks will not be 
denied, and, being condemned to live there, have suc¬ 
ceeded in defiance of every obstacle. With their 
twisted roots, and with their strong talons that have 
seized upon the rock, they too, after their fashion, 
eloquently exclaim, “ Persevere ! ” The invincible trees, 
struggling all the more bravely the greater the resistance 
they meet with, have, on the unimpeded side, plunged so 
much the more deeply into the bowels of the earth, and 
drawn from it incalculable forces. One of them, the 
poor old giant named Charlemagne, worn-out, under¬ 
mined, thunder-stricken, after so many centuries and 
so many trials, is still so vigorous in its loins, that in a 
solitary branch it has all the appearance of carrying a 
great oak with outstretched arms. 
Between this sandstone and these oaks one may 
profit largely. Nor is man, if you find him here at 
work, a less useful teacher. The valiant quarry men 
whom I encountered battling against the rock with 
monstrous hammers which seem never made for the 
hand of man, I could willingly believe to possess the 
resistant force of the sandstone and the iron heart of 
the oak. And this is undoubtedly true, so far as concerns the soul and 
the will. But the body has less power of endurance. Few quarrymen 
»o 
