36 THE SOUTH COUNTRY 



First, ere the morning breaks, joy opens in the flowery bosoms, 

 Joy even to tears, which the Sun rising dries ; first the Wild 



Thyme 



And Meadow-sweet, downy and soft, waving among the reeds, 

 Light springing in the air, lead the sweet Dance ; they wake 

 The Honeysuckle sleeping in the Oak, the flaunting beauty 

 Revels along upon the wind ; the white-thorn lovely May 

 Opens her many lovely eyes ; listening the Rose still sleeps. 

 None dare to wake her. Soon she bursts her crimson-curtained 



bed 



And comes forth in the majesty of beauty ; every Flower 

 The Pink, the Jessamine, the Wallflower, the Carnation, 

 The Jonquil, the mild Lily opes her heavens ; every Tree 

 And Flower and Herb soon fill the air with an innumerable 



Dance, 

 Yet all in order sweet and lovely 



Those words or such a morning when the soul steps 

 back many years; or is it many centuries? might have 

 moved M. Maeterlinck to his descriptions of certain great 

 moments in the lives of plants. The terms of these 

 descriptions are so chosen as to imply an intelligence and 

 discriminating vital energy in plants. They prove and 

 explain nothing, but they take one step towards the truth 

 by disturbing the conventional scientific view and sub- 

 stituting that of a man who, passionately looking at many 

 forms of life, finds them to be of one family. After this, 

 it should be more and more difficult for men to think of 

 flowers as if they were fragile toys from an exceptionally 

 brilliant manufacturer. 



And now there is a day of sun and high blue sky 

 alternating with low, grey-yellow sky and driving snow 

 that chequers the northern sides of the furrows and the 

 beech boles. The sun melts the snow and all is clear, 



