

\ 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 con- 

 nected the flowering of the apple with their 

 dreams of paradise ; I saw at a glance the 

 immortal symbolism of these blossoming 

 fields and hillsides. I did not need to lift 

 my eyes to look upon that garden of Hes- 

 perides, lying like a dream of heaven under 

 the golden western skies, whence Heracles 

 brought back the fruit of Juno ; I asked no 

 aid of Milton's imagination to see the mighty 

 hero in 



. . . the gardens fair 



Of Hesperus and his daughters three, 



That sing about the golden tree; 



and as I gazed, the vision of that other and 

 nobler hero came before me, whose purity 

 is more to us than his prowess, and who 

 waits in Avilion, the " Isle of Apples," for 

 25 



