NATURE'S MEMORIAL DAY 189 



other nation of the time. From this mother land 

 of the lilac spread westward the belief in one God. 

 There the learned men taught to princes and 

 nobles a due reverence for parents and aged per- 

 sons, a paternal affection for the whole human 

 species and a compassionate tenderness even for 

 the brute creation. There before the sovereign 

 in state might appear the humblest peasant for 

 justice, and the youth of the land were taught 

 fortitude, clemency, justice, prudence, to ride a 

 horse, use the bow and speak the truth. With 

 the odor of these things that of the lilac filled the 

 air there through centuries of springs. What 

 more fitting flower could we lay upon the graves 

 of our heroes, whether of the Civil War or the 

 Revolution, whether wearing the blue or the 

 gray, or the homespun of the battle of every-day 

 workshop, farm or home? There is more of 

 symbolism in its giving than we heed. With the 

 loving remembrance of friends of to-day goes a 

 greeting from heroes of an age long gone but not 

 forgotten. 



There is no remembrance of civilization, no 

 aura of human nobility about the smilacina, which 



