With difficulty man constructs that musical instrument called a mouthharp, but nature, in six weeks, out of a little blue or brown egg constructs a feathered music-box that automatically conveys itself from tree to tree.  But the mystery that has gone on in that tiny blue egg lying in the nest is just as great as if some housewife had planted an old spinning-wheel in the full expectation of reaping a Jacquard loom, or had buried a jew’s-harp in the garden expecting in the fall to pick a grand piano.  To the mystery that is involved in enlargement by growth must be added the mystery of intelligence.  It is not an easy thing for an expert housewife, using the same formula, always to achieve the same happy results in the white loaf.  He who plants a strawberry seed will find that the tiny seed will construct a plant, lay in the red tints according to rule and mix the flavor of the berry to a nicety that is the despair of the chef.  In the tropic forests there is a flower with a deep cup and the pollen at the bottom.  This pollen lies upon a little platter, and underneath the platter is that form of trap known as a figure four, much loved by boys.  When the bee, creeping down into the flower, touches that platter, it springs the trap that throws the fertilizing pollen upon the legs of the bee, to be conveyed to the next flower.  Wise men can, indeed, imitate this device, but a single seed will in a few months construct many scores of these mechanical devices.  To-morrow morning the embryologist in his laboratory will place an egg under a glass cylinder in an atmosphere of 98 degrees.  Four hours pass and suddenly the scientist perceives an atom in the heart of that egg give a quick lashing movement.  Another moment witnesses two quick throbs.  Growth has begun and in four months’ time the young eagle with firm strokes will lift itself into the soft air.  From the chamber of life and the chamber of death God hath never drawn the curtains.  The chamber of growth is another most holy place in which God alone doth stand.

Deeply impressed by the fact of growth, scientists have also marveled at the principle that controls the harvest.  Rocks enlarge by accretion, but from what a rock is at the beginning, the geologists cannot tell what will be the shape of that rock when all deposits are finally made.  As to growth in seed and shrub, like produces like.  He who sows wheat reaps wheat, not tares.  He who plants a grape receives a purple cluster, not a bunch of thorns or thistles.  He who sows honor shall reap confidence.  He who sows frankness shall reap openness.  No Peabody sowing industry and thrift reaps the harvest of indolence and idleness.  Theodore Parker, loving knowledge and for it denying himself sleep and exercise, reaped wisdom, and also wan and hollow cheeks, while the iron frame and ruddy cheek are for the child of the woods who loves exercise in the open air.  He who aspires to leadership and would have the multitude cheer his name, he who