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
