THE GARDEN OF EARTH 



PART I— INTRODUCTORY 



THE SPRING AWAKENING 



I — In the Garden 



Suppose that you and I are going into a large garden, 

 for the first time in our lives. It might be that we had 

 lived always in some huge manufacturing town, where 

 trees could not grow, and flowers could not flourish. 

 Or — if this were possible — that our lot had been cast 

 in far-north regions of perpetual ice and snow, where 

 vegetation would be only of the very lowest. 



What, then, should we think of a fair garden, breaking 

 suddenly on our sight in spring? How much should 

 we understand, how much should we grasp, of what 

 would lie before our eyes ? 



Picture it to yourself, and try to realise how things 

 would look. Come into the garden, in imagination, 

 and make yourself see as you would see under such cir- 

 cumstances, with eyes unused, with a mind unaccus- 

 tomed, to the surroundings. Countless marvels in this 

 world we accept with calm indifference, only because 

 we have always known them thus. Otherwise, we should 

 be perpetually stirred to wonder and amazement at 



