ure with light, of form with colour, has 

 found at their hands no such transcendent 

 demonstration as this fragile rose, which 

 to-night brings from the great temple to 

 this little shrine the perfume and the royalty 

 of obedience to the highest laws, and rever- 

 ence for the divinest mysteries. Here sky 

 and earth and sea meet in a union which 

 no science can dissolve, because God has 

 joined them together. Could I but pene- 

 trate the mystery which lies at the heart 

 of this fragile flower, I should possess the 

 secret of the universe ; I should understand 

 the ancient miracle which has baffled wis- 

 dom from the beginning and will not dis- 

 cover itself to the end of time. 



If I permit my thought to rest upon this 

 fragrant flower, to touch petal and stem 

 and root, and unite them with the vast 

 world in which, by a universal contribution 

 of force, they have come to maturity, I 

 find myself face to face with the oldest 

 and the deepest questions men have ever 

 sought to answer. Elements of earth and 

 sea and sky are blended here in one of 

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