From Alain on Happiness (1973), Translated by Robert D. and Jane E. Cottrell:

Elms

“The leaves are coming out. Soon the Galerucidae, which are small green beetles, will settle down on the leaves of the elms and devour them. The trees will be deprived of their lungs. You will see how they will resist asphyxiation by growing new leaves and reliving their spring. But the effort will exhaust them. One year you will see that they cannot manage to put out new leaves, and they will die.”

So a lover of trees bemoaned as we were strolling through the grounds of his estate. He showed me century-old elms and announced their imminent demise. I said to him: “We must put up a fight. That little beetle is helpless. If you can kill one of them, you can kill a hundred, or a thousand.”

“What are a thousand beetles?” he answered. “There are millions of them. I prefer not to think about them.”

“But you have money,” I told him. “With money one can buy days of work. Ten workers working ten days will kill more than a thousand beetles. Wouldn’t you sacrifice a few hundred francs to preserve these beautiful trees?”

“I have too many of them,” he said, “and I have too few workers. How would they get up to the top branches? It would take tree surgeons. I know of only two in this area.”

“Two,” I told him, “that’s already something. They’ll take care of the top branches. Others, who are less experienced, will use ladders. And even if you don’t save all your trees, at least you’ll save two or three.”

“I don’t have enough energy for all that,” he finally said. “I know what I’ll do. I’ll go away for a while so as not to see the invasion of the beetles.”

“Oh the power of the imagination,” I answered. “Here you are already routed before you’ve even begun to fight. Don’t look beyond the task at hand. We would never do anything if we considered the immense weight of things and the weakness of man. That is why we must act, and think in terms of action. Look at that mason; he turns the crank calmly; the huge stone just barely moves. However, the house will get finished, and children will play on the stairs. I once felt admiration for a worker who was getting ready to bore a hole, with his brace and bit, in a wall of steel that was six inches thick. He whistled while turning the handle; fine flakes of steel fell like snow. I marveled at the man’s courage. That was ten years ago. You may be sure that he got that hole drilled, and many others too. The beetles themselves can teach you a lesson. What’s a beetle compared to an elm? But all those tiny nibbling mouths can devour a forest. We must have faith in our little efforts and use the tactics of an insect to fight against an insect. There are hundreds of things in your favor; otherwise there wouldn’t be any elms. Destiny is not constant; a snap of the fingers, and a new world is created. The smallest effort produces incalculable results. The person who planted these elms did not reflect on the brevity of life. Like him, throw yourself into action and don’t look beyond tomorrow, and you will save your elms.”

5 May 1909