40 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1900. 



possibilities is the only one that is really and truly natural ; 

 the others are unnatural, because they have not reached the 

 height of their capability and power. 



There are some men in the world so evil, debauched and 

 degraded, that they are a disgrace to manhood ; there are others 

 who are wise and kind and tender and good. There are women 

 who cause us to blush when we look at them : there are others 

 the very touch of whose hands makes us better and purer, and I 

 ask you which is the natural man, the natural woman? Those 

 who flaunt their sin and shame in the eyes of the world, or those 

 who glorify humanity by the exhibition of all the glorious quali- 

 ties of human life, the man and woman as God meant them to 

 be ? I think the best are the most natural ! They have the God- 

 thought more clearly revealed in their lives and I think there is 

 nothing in the world that gives u^> so much encouragement in 

 working for the lost and degraded as the thought that we may 

 improve the worst of them even as we have improved the rose, 

 the pansy, and every other tlower to which we have given 

 thought and time and skill. We become encouraged to work 

 for humanity by seeing how much we can do for almost every 

 flower that grows by the wayside. 



I do not know, sir, how long I ought to talk, whether you are 

 getting very tired or not, but there are three or four other 

 things I should like to say, so perhaps 1 had better pass over 

 some of the things I had prepared. 



Above all things that are the curse of this age, I think 

 pessimism is about the worst. There are some people who 

 always believe the worst of everything and everybody. When 

 I look very closely into the details of the lives of such people, 

 I find that they have, generally speaking, tried to seize hold of 

 their own share of life's good things and somebody else's as 

 well, and they have missed it; so they say, " Life is not worth 

 living." They become pessimists. I say flowers teach us the 

 other philosophy, the beautiful optimism of life, and I affirm 

 here, positively and with all conviction and with all the force of 

 innate soundness of mind that life is worth living, if only to see 

 the roses bloom in June, and worth living the whole of the other 



