In the Garden 45 



quivering to the Spring wind's caress, and the budding 

 plants are modestly rejoicing in the first kisses of the 

 sun ; like a white cloud on a Summer sea a pensive 

 moral shall play over, darkening yet deepening the 

 spectator's sympathy with the glowing palpitating life 

 that is bursting from every pore of earth. How like 

 to human beings, he may exclaim as he thinks of 

 Winter and death, and recalls the melancholy epi- 

 taph : 



Earth goeth on the earth, 

 Glistening like gold ; 



Earth cometh to the earth, 

 Sooner than it wold. 



As, with regret that he should shorten their lives 

 by a single day, he tenderly cuts them for his table, he 

 shall with the aid of George Herbert suck melancholy 

 from the act : 



But him did beckon to the flowers, and they 

 By noon most cunningly did steal away, 

 And withered in my hand. 



With Herrick too he shall exclaim, 'Fair daffodils, we 

 weep to see you haste away so soon,' and thus care- 

 fully attune his soul to the delicate note of mourning 

 that runs like a thread through the happiest cords of 

 nature. 



An advantage of dealing with an imaginary book 

 is that you need imagine only those portions that 

 would catch the eye of an accomplished skimmer as 

 he idly turned the pages. It is a form of authorship 



