CHAP, viii.] PLANTS AND ANIMALS. 125 



the woods for love of them half of each day, he is 

 in danger of being regarded as a loafer ; but if he 

 spends his whole day as a speculator, shearing off 

 those woods and making earth bald before her time, 

 he is esteemed an industrious and enterprising citi- 

 zen. As if a town had no interest in its forests but 

 to cut them down!" (Thoreau.) But now men are 

 getting a little wiser, and, even in the mighty Metro- 

 polis itself, are learning that the public parks and 

 gardens and the trees by the wayside are a profitable 

 investment after all. Profitable as breathing-spaces, 

 as lungs to this heart of a mighty nation, as spots of 

 beauty, veritable oases in a desert of brick and flag- 

 stone. Profitable merely for the sake of the quiet 

 and calm in the midst of a ceaseless babble, or as 

 playgrounds for the little ones. Even the eye is 



i^O w 



glad of the repose afforded by the masses of quiet 

 green, and altogether we have learned to regard our 

 open spaces as among the most valuable and profit- 

 able of our municipal possessions. Dean Swift, in 

 his "Travels of Gulliver," makes one of his characters 

 hold the opinion " that whoever could make two ears 

 of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot 

 of ground where only one grew before, would deserve 

 better of mankind, and do more essential service to 

 his country, than the whole race of politicians put 

 together." Though we are not disposed to adopt 

 that opinion in its entirety, we are sure that such a 

 person is a real benefactor to his country, especially 

 if his work has consisted in the wresting of a common 

 from the clutches of a rapacious lord of the manor, 

 to devote it to the enjoyment of the people for ever. 



