THE CROCUS, AND SOME DREAMING 33 



floral wonders and rich harvests for Man and his 

 flocks, intent upon an errand of good cheer, you 

 emerged meekly fearless from a safe and snug 

 seclusion, only to be met by Winter in its ' crabbed 

 old age,' in its unseemly death-throes. 



Ah well ! that is the poetry and the pathos of 

 the matter ; what is the bald, important truth ? 

 Just this — as the Crocus itself would tell us : our 

 pathos is in large part bathos ; and the fate so often 

 overtaking this charming denizen of the Alps is 

 typical of the universal order of things, so severe, 

 so maligned, and yet so inevitably right — an order 

 of seeming injustice which is all the time making 

 for justice. Creation is the child of severity and 

 strictness, not of sentiment. And the child is as 

 capable as it is by reason of this stern upbringing. 

 Nature's injustice is sentiment, and does not exist. 

 But because there is no sentiment, this is not proof 

 of Nature's unkindness. Nature is kind because 

 she is stern. Happiness lies in efficiency. In 

 creating efficient capacity in things Nature shows 

 her kindness : for she creates happiness. 



Contemplating this demure and dainty little 

 flower, and meditating upon its condition, one can 

 scarcely escape assimilating something of the 

 happiness and serenity of purpose which pervades 



