504 JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



was as wise as it was rare. Beyond doubt, Duncan found 

 from sweet experience, as he wrote in one of his own essays, 

 "a sort of spell or charm about flowers, independent of 

 fashion or the pleasures of sight and smell, which tended to 

 soothe the spirits and compose the mind.* From their 

 study, he extracted the very elixir of life, and sipped the 

 honey of existence. 



As a whole, it seems only the simple truth, that not- 

 withstanding the sorrows he felt and the hardships he 

 passed through, few men have lived a happier life than poor 

 John Duncan ; for his joys and renovations were ever 

 present and perennial, and always satisfying. He appears 

 to have come very near Emerson's " rich and royal man," 

 inasmuch as he " knew what sweets and virtues are in the 

 ground, the waters, the plants, the heavens, and how to 

 come at these enchantments." 



And the happiness of John Duncan is open to most of 

 us, if not more or less to all, if we will but seek it where 

 he found it that is the comforting, the blessed thought. 

 Whatever our daily bread-winning work, be it weaving 

 or book-making, if we will only go out into Nature, and 

 intelligently and earnestly study and feel her wonders, 

 beauties and serenities, his secret will become ours. For 

 there, as the same philosophic poet truly urges : " The knap- 

 sack of custom falls off our backs with the first step we 

 make into these precincts. There is sanctity which shames 

 our religion, and reality which discredits our heroes. We 

 have crept out of our close and crowded houses into the 

 night and morning, and we see what majestic beauties daily 

 wrap us in their bosom. How willingly we would escape 

 * Essay on Practical Gardening. See p. 266. 



