word of our own Saxon (and Dutch) dialect,--'root'; (connected with
Rood--an image of wood; whence at last the Holy Rood, or Tree).

3. The Root has three great functions:

1st. To hold the plant in its place.
2nd. To nourish it with earth.
3rd. To receive vital power for it from the earth.

With this last office is in some degree,--and especially in certain
plants,--connected, that of reproduction.

But in all plants the root has these three essential functions.

First, I said, to hold the Plant in its place. The Root is its Fetter.

You think it, perhaps, a matter of course that a plant is not to be a
crawling thing? It is not a matter of course at all. A vegetable might be
just what it is now, as compared with an animal;--might live on earth and
water instead of on meat,--might be as senseless in life, as calm in death,
and in all its parts and apparent structure {28} unchanged; and yet be a
crawling thing. It is quite as easy to conceive plants moving about like
lizards, putting forward first one root and then another, as it is to think
of them fastened to their place. It might have been well for them, one
would have thought, to have the power of going down to the streams to
drink, in time of drought;--of migrating in winter with grim march from
north to south of Dunsinane Hill side. But that is not their appointed
Fate. They are--at least all the noblest of them, rooted to their spot.
Their honour and use is in giving immoveable shelter,--in remaining
landmarks, or lovemarks, when all else is changed:

"The cedars wave on Lebanon,
But Judah's statelier maids are gone."

4. Its root is thus a form of fate to the tree. It condemns, or indulges
it, in its place. These semi-living creatures, come what may, shall abide,
happy, or tormented. No doubt concerning "the position in which Providence
has placed _them_" is to trouble their minds, except so far as they can
mend it by seeking light, or shrinking from wind, or grasping at support,
within certain limits. In the thoughts of men they have thus become twofold
images,--on the one side, of spirits restrained and half destroyed, whence
the fables of transformation into trees; on the other, of spirits patient
and continuing, having root in themselves and in good ground, capable of
all persistent {29} effort and vital stability, both in themselves, and for
the human States they form.

5. In this function of holding fast, roots have a power of grasp quite