1900.] ESSAYS.* 41 



eleven months with some measure of trouble so that we may 

 have that glorious vision of what the world of nature is capable 

 of when it tries to do its best. 



I have gone, especially after a Sunday's hard work, into my 

 garden, when the people insisted that the sermons were not 

 quite as successful as they ought to be (and I thoroughly agreed 

 with them). I have gone out into my garden and learned some 

 lessons of patience and quiet fortitude, and I have been able 

 sometimes to say to those who hold the cup from which you 

 would drink, "Your yea and your nay are immutably heedless 

 of the outcry of the wise that life is worth living and here would 

 we stay with a houseful of books and a garden of flowers." 



I want to tell you that rivalry is a good thing — well, so it is. 

 (I had better not go into that.) I don't mean that a man shall 

 take all the prizes in a flower show without he earns them ; but 

 I have been judge a good many times in my life when a man 

 showed poor flowers and swore at the judges because he could 

 not get the prizes. I think that man makes a great mistake ; 

 there is a mistake somewhere in the premises. (But I had 

 better pass that over.) 



Flowers tell us that the best way to dispose of our affections 

 in this world is to widely distribute them. Husbands and wives 

 may not believe in that philosophy and it may not appeal to us, 

 but so far as the flower-garden is concerned, I am sure it is the 

 best system to live by. Roses in a garden are a great deal bet- 

 ter than a garden of roses. We want a foil to every flower, no 

 matter how beautiful it may be in itself. We want variety, 

 whether in a flower-garden or in life, and though you may be 

 wedded to one flower, as the dahlia, or the sweet pea, or the 

 rose, whatever it may be, you had better have as many sup- 

 plementary friends as possible, so you may make the blossoms 

 of life last the year round in any garden you like to plant. 

 Do not centre all your love upon any one thing, no matter how 

 beautiful it may be. 



Somebody asked me in Springfield if I could give any special 

 directions so they could be sure and succeed in making a 

 garden. I said, yes, I could. The great Master, whom we all 



