206 GARDEN-CRAFT. 



day, evening and morning, summer and winter ; and 

 all their unwearied actions and energies." 



Of all Nature's consecrated children, he is the 

 prince of the apostolate ; he is, so to speak, the 

 beloved disciple of them all, whose exalted personal 

 love admits him to the right to lean upon her breast, 

 to hear her heart-beats, to catch knowledge there 

 that had been kept secret since the world began. 

 None so familiar with pastoral life in its varied time- 

 fulness, sweet or stern, glad or grim, pathetic or 

 sublime, as he who carries in his mind the echoes of 

 the passion of the storm, the moan of the passing 

 wind with its beat upon the bald mountain-crag, the 

 sighing of the dry sedge, the lunge of mighty waters, 

 the tones of water-falls, the inland sounds of caves 

 and trees, the plaintive spirit of the solitude. There 

 are none who have pondered so deeply over " the 

 blended holiness of earth and sky," the gesture of the 

 wind and cloud, the silence of the hills ; none so free 

 to fraternise with things bold or obscure, great or 

 small, as he who told alike of the love and infinite 

 longings of Margaret, of the fresh joy of 



" The blooming girl whose hair was wet 

 With points of morning dew," 



of the lonely star, the solitary raven, the pliant 

 hare-bell, swinging in the breeze, the meadows and 

 the lower ground, and all the sweetness of a common 

 dawn. 



Thus did Wordsworth enter into the soul of 

 things and sing of them 



" In a music sweeter than their own." 



