LEAVES. 45 



the necessities and positive requirements of things are 

 the necessities only of the individuals in which we be- 

 hold them. Step a little further, and some other thing 

 dispenses with them, and yet flourishes, and is as 

 grand and comely in default as if in possession ; and 

 that which we fancied to be the law, is shown to be 

 only one of the ways in which a higher and greater 

 law that we cannot reach to, is effectuated. The ap- 

 parent inconsistencies of nature all meet under some 

 higher synthesis of order which includes both the 

 common and usual thing, and that which to our dim 

 eyesight, seems the exception or the contravention. 



The leaves of herbaceous plants make their appear- 

 ance according to a similarly definite sequence. We 

 do not notice them because they are so near the surface 

 of the ground, whereas the branches of the trees are el- 

 evated high in air. Sweet is the spectacle on a warm af- 

 ternoon in April, when we wander down by some trott- 

 ing burn, where early primroses, daffodils, and anem- 

 ones mix their fantasy ; where the first violets seem 

 blue eyes, and the lustrous coltsfolt glows in rays of 

 yellow gold ; sweet is it to note the little leaves of 

 a thousand summer-plants that, not behind time, for 

 it is their nature to take their turn, but that in all 

 promptitude are creeping out of the soil, spreading 

 like green lace among the taller ones, and making 

 green stars that have buds for the living centre. 

 The colors, too, are as varied as those of the leaves of 



