Winter Meeting. 221 



planes of thought. 1 recall here, that I have been told my essays are 

 not practical, that they are visionary and of no use. I have replied to 

 this friendly criticism by saying that I did not wish them to be prac- 

 tical, and that I intended them to be visionary, for I claim that the 

 spiritual is of far more value than the merely practical, and that the 

 things unseen are of much greater v^orth than are those we behold 

 with our limited natural vision. As a florist is superior to a butcher, 

 so is the work that appeals to the soul higher than that which appeals 

 only to the material sense. He who grows a plant assists life in its 

 struggle for light and development upward into beauty, while he 

 who kills an animal not only destroys a force concerning which the 

 greatest sages have ever remained ignorant, but he also destroys a 

 portion of the refinement belonging of right to his own soul. It is a 

 fact well iVnown that the Japanese who have made floriculture a 

 special study, and who have done more than any other nation to ad- 

 vance the science of flower growing, were not until recently a meat 

 eating race. When we really become as civilized as we think we are 

 we shall not only cease slaughtering animals for the purpose of eat- 

 ing them, but shall also cease murdering each other, either in wars, 

 or stealthily in the dark places of earth. Do you ever pause in your 

 hurried career, my dear materialist, to ponder on the command of the 

 Saviour, who told his deciples "to consider the lilies, how they grow?" 

 not when they grow, nor where they grow, but how? They toil not, 

 neither do they spin, yet they are abundantly cared for; as we might 

 be, if we loved, and trusted, and sometimes waited for the manifesta- 

 tions of the One "who so loved us that He gave His only begotten 

 son, that we might not perish, but have eternal life." That son told 

 his followers to consider the lilies, not merely to glance at them, and 

 turn away, but to consider them. To consider means to reflect deeply, 

 to think seriously, to make careful examination, to study. This is 

 what I would have you do in reference to the value of flowers. I 

 could tell you how to grow them, any florist's catalogue can do this. 

 I do not need to tell you that you must have fertile seed, that the soil 

 must be rich, light and well prepared, that you must keep the weeds 

 from crowding them, that some are hardy, and others tender, that 

 you must plant seed in the springtime, and that they must have sun- 

 shine and moisture ; you all know this as well as I do, but you may 

 not know that it would be better to sell one of your daily loaves of 

 bread (even if you had but two) and buy a flower to feed your soul. 

 If I can, in this essay, cause one person to consider the true value of 

 flowers, I shall have accomplished more by far than as though I should 



