108 PHILLIDA AND CORIDON. 
could be simpler or aoe delightful? Carried 
on in this way, eating is no longer the coarse 
and sensual thing we make it, with our set 
meal-times and elaborate preparations. 
Country children know that there are two 
ways to go berrying. According to the first 
of these you stroll into the pasture in the cool 
of the day, and at your leisure pick as many as 
you choose of the ripest and largest of the ber- 
ries, putting every one into your mouth. This 
is agreeable. According to the second, you 
carry a basket, which you are expected to bring 
home again well filled. And this method — 
well, tastes will differ, but following the good 
old rule for judging in such cases, I must be- 
lieve that most unsophisticated persons prefer 
the other. The hand-to-mouth process cer- 
tainly agrees best with our idea of life in Eden ; 
and, what is more to the purpose now, it is the 
one which the birds, still keeping the garden 
instead of tilling the ground, continue to follow. 
That this unworldliness of the birds has any 
religious or theological significance I do not 
myself suppose. Still, as anybody may see, 
there are certain very plain Scripture texts on 
their side. Indeed, if birds were only acute 
theologians, they would unquestionably proceed 
to turn these texts (since they find it so easy to 
obey them) into the basis of a “ system of 
