THE ETHICS OF H9RTICULTURE. 221 



fewer mortgages. Never one acre of land west of the Missouri river 

 has ever been put to its fullest test. Yes, give us rich thought and we 

 shall have a rich land. While genius is harnessing the powers above 

 and around and making obedient servants of the lightnings, we want 

 not altogether the genius which walks the air, but which will walk the 

 earth and transform it and glorify it. 



It is possible that the conditions of the other life will bear some 

 resemblance to this. On this earth we find the key which unlocks 

 many of the mysteries of other worlds. Here we have about seventy 

 elements entering into combination to form this globe and some twenty- 

 five of the same elements have been tossed upon this earth by those 

 heavenly trumps the meteors, and the spectroscope shows that the 

 flames burning in the mantles of the far off sun is the combustion of 

 such material as earth aflbrds. It may have been real gems John saw 

 flashing in the wall of heaven. Horticulture stands looking from the 

 fairest landscapes of earth with their wondrous adorning of shrub and 

 tree and flowers of wondrous hue. Vast possibilities hem us in here. 

 There will be a different world here a hundred vears from now, and 

 looking from the fields of future development, men will be impressed 

 with the thought of more beyond. You know the legend of Gibral- 

 tar, — " Ne plus ultra.'" The promise of more beyond meets us on 

 every hand. You collect the fairest gems of earth and they awaken 

 a longing for more beauty, more splendor. You listen to the strains 

 of the sweetest song and you seem wet with the spray of a vast ocean 

 of melody whose mighty billows roll in from the evermore. The: 

 highest art inspires an almost pensive longing for some higher art,, 

 which is to be unveiled hereafter. Beauty of gem, of foliage, and 

 bloom are prophetic of the beauty of the Lord which is to be upon 

 us. The poet tells of 



"Sweefc fields beyond the swelling flood, 

 And never withering flowers." 



There the water of life's river irrigates the heavenly plains, and there 

 is the tree of life in the fullness of its beauty and fruitage. 



Sometimes there comes to the soul, as it nears the border, foretastes 

 of the awaiting splendor. I cannot forget the vision of a little girl^ 

 who died on the frontier, who spoke in rapture of the wonderfid farm 

 filled with such beautiful trees and flowers. In October, during the 

 great exposition, I lay at the point of death. I could almost look 



