Comfort Me with Apples 



197 



and might be chosen as the totem of the white set- 

 tlers. Our love for the Apple is natural, for it was 

 the characteristic fruit of Britain ; the clergy were 

 its chief cultivators ; they grew Apples in their mon- 

 astery gardens, prayed for them in special religious 

 ceremonies, sheltered the fruit by laws, and even 



"The valley stretching below 

 Is white with blossoming Apple trees, as if touched with lightest snow." 



named the Apple when pronouncing the blessings 

 of God upon their princes and rulers. 



Thoreau described an era of luxury as one in 

 which men cultivate the Apple and the amenities of 

 the garden. He thought it indicated relaxed nerves 

 to read gardening books, and he regarded garden- 

 ing as a civil and social function, not a love of 

 nature. He tells of his own love for freedom and 

 savagery and he found what he so deemed at 



