10 UNDER THE TREES. 



of work, and while they wait, waking and sleeping, 

 anxiously watching winds and clouds, I vitalize 

 their toil and turn all my forces to their bidding. 

 The labor of the year is at hand and on its thresh 

 old I take this holiday. To-day I give you a 

 glimpse of paradise ; a garden in which all manner 

 of loveliness blooms simply from the overflow of 

 life, without thought, br care, or toil. This was 

 my life before men came with their cries of hunger 

 and nakedness ; this shall be my life again when 

 they have passed beyond. This which lies before 

 you like a dream is a glimpse of life as it is in me, 

 and shall be in you ; immortal, inexhaustible full 

 ness of power and beauty, overflowing in frolic 

 loveliness. This shall be to you a day out of 

 eternity, a moment out of the immortal youth to 

 which all true life comes at last, and in which it 

 abides.&quot; 



I cannot say that I heard these words, and yet 

 they were as real to me as if they had been audible ; 

 in~all fellowship with Nature silence is deeper and 

 more real than speech. As I stood meditating on 

 these deep things that lie at the bottom of this sea 

 of bloom, I understood why men in all ages have 

 connected the flowering of the apple with their 

 dreams of paradise ; I saw at a glance the immor 

 tal symbolism of these blossoming fields and hill 

 sides. I did not need to lift my eyes to look upon 

 that garden of Hesperides, lying like a dream of 

 heaven under the golden western skies, whence 



