FLOWERS AND FOLKS. 211 



tonholes the wayfarer, so to speak, and with 

 generous country insistence forces upon him 

 the delicious clusters which he, in his preoc- 

 cupation, seemed in danger of passing un- 

 tasted. I think I know the human counter- 

 parts of both barberry and bramble, ex- 

 cellent people in their place, though not to 

 be chosen for bosom friends without a care- 

 ful weighing of consequences. Judging 

 them not by their manners, but by their 

 fruits, we must set them on the right hand. 

 It would go hard with some of the most 

 pious of my neighbors, I imagine, if the 

 presence of a few thorns and prickles were 

 reckoned inconsistent with a moderately 

 good character. 



As for reprobates like the so-called "poi- 

 son ivy" and "poison dogwood," they have 

 perhaps borrowed a familiar human maxim, 

 "All is fair in war." In any case, they 

 are no worse than savage heathen, who kill 

 their enemies with poisoned arrows, or than 

 civilized Christians, who stab the reputation 

 of their friends with poisoned words. Their 

 marked comeliness of habit may be taken as 

 a point in their favor ; or, on the contrary, 

 it may be held to make their case only so 



