128 FOREST CULTURE AND 
such labors, every solid basis for applying the knowl- 
edge of plants to uses of any kind would be wanting. 
We would stray, indeed, unguided in a labyrinth 
between crude masses or inordinate fragments, instead 
of dwelling in a grand and lasting structure of knowl- 
edge, unless science also in this direction had raised 
its imperishable temples. But how much patient and 
toilsome research had to be spent thus to bring togeth- 
er in a systematic arrangement all the products of 
this wide globe; how many dangers of exploring 
travelers had to be braved to amplify the material for 
this knowledge, and how many have @» pass away, 
even now-a-days, persecuted and worried like Galileo 
at his time, no one yet has told, nor will tell. Well 
may we feel with the great German poet, as expressed 
in Bulwer Lytton’s beautiful wording : 
‘© J will reward thee in a holier land, 
Do give to me thy youth! 
All I can grant you lies in this command— 
I heard, and trusting in a holier land, 
Gave my young joys to truth.” 
But is there nothing higher than the search of 
earthly riches, and is to this all knowledge of the 
earth’s beautiful vegetation also to be rendered sub- 
servient ? Is there nothing loftier than to break the 
flowers for our gayeties or to strew them along a 
mirthful path? There is! They raised the noblest 
feelings of the poet at all ages ; they spoke the purest 
words of attachment; they ever were the silent har- 
bingers of love. They smilingly inspired hope anew 
in unmeasured sadness, and on the death-bed or at 
the grave they appear to link together, as symbols of 
ever -returning springs, the mortal world with im- 
mortality ; they ever teach us some of the sublimest 
revelations of our eternal God. 
