Freedom within the limits of Nature’s laws, and indeed there is no freedom without those limits, is best studied and realized in the growth of all plants,—­in the openness of the branch of a vine to receive the sap from the main stem, in the free circulation of the sap in a tree and in all vegetable organisms.

Imagine the branch of a vine endowed with the power to grow according to the laws which govern it, or to ignore and disobey those laws.  Imagine the same branch having made up its vegetable mind that it could live its own life apart from the vine, twisting its various fibres into all kinds of knots and snarls, according to its own idea of living, so that the sap from the main stem could only reach it in a minimum quantity.  What a dearth of leaf, flower, and fruit would appear in the branch!  Yet the figure is perfectly illustrative of the way in which most of us are interfering with the best use of the life that is ours.

Freedom is obedience to law.  A bridge can be built to stand, only in obedience to the laws of mechanics.  Electricity can be made a useful power only in exact obedience to the laws that govern it, otherwise it is most destructive.  Has man the privilege of disobeying natural laws, only in the use of his own individual powers?  Clearly not.  And why is it that while recognizing and endeavoring to obey the laws of physics, of mechanics, and all other laws of Nature in his work in the world, he so generally defies the same laws in their application to his own being?

The freedom of an animal’s body in obeying the animal instincts is beautiful to watch.  The grace and power expressed in the freedom of a tiger are wonderful.  The freedom in the body of a baby to respond to every motion and expression is exquisite to study.  But before most children have been in the world three years their inherited personal contractions begin, and unless the little bodies can be watched and trained out of each unnecessary contraction as it appears, and so kept in their own freedom, there comes a time later, when to live to the greatest power for use they must spend hours in learning to be babies all over again, and then gain a new freedom and natural movement.

The law which perhaps appeals to us most strongly when trying to identify ourselves with Nature is the law of rhythm:  action, re-action; action, re-action; action, re-action,—­and the two must balance, so that equilibrium is always the result.  There is no similar thought that can give us keener pleasure than when we rouse all our imagination, and realize all our power of identifying ourselves with the workings of a great law, and follow this rhythmic movement till we find rhythm within rhythm,—­from the rhythmic motion of the planets to the delicate vibrations of heat and light.  It is helpful to think of rhythmic growth and motion, and not to allow the thought of a new rhythm to pass without identifying ourselves with it as fully as our imagination will allow.