76 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1904. 



But the naturalists have had no gory aim or lust. They 

 have not distrusted the world, or sought to ride over it, or 

 trample upon it, in a search for supernatural goods. 



They have believed that the greatest blessing of the world 

 was the world itself, better known and loved; that the best 

 good of those who lived in it was not separated from its own 

 self; and that those who w^ould possess and enjoy most of 

 life must find it in a deeper thoughtfulness about the realm 

 in which it is placed, and our natural and wholesome ways 

 of living in it. 



Following their trail we have come into a new and very 

 different w^orld, a world better known, far more worthy of 

 being trusted and loved, a world which does not impeach our 

 best ideals of the goodness and wisdom of God, when he made 

 it and put us here, nor teach us to distrust and neglect it in 

 the interest of some supernatural good supposed to be the 

 real end of human living. 



The older thinkers and observers looked askance at nature, 

 or with a deep feeling of hostility. Most of it was unknown, 

 even superficially. 



Discovery was chiefly of its surface rather than of itself. 

 Living was a fight to maintain one's self in the midst of warring 

 and treacherous surroundings. 



Man was in it as an alien, and for the present only, for his 

 disciplining. He had no close relations with the land on which 

 he was encamped, and his release from it was his highest desire 

 and reward. 



The Epicurean said, Live in the good you have, forgetting 

 all else. The Stoic said. Fence out the evil by resolution and 

 so secure your temporary peace. The Platonist said. Rise 

 above the things of nature, and in the transcendental realms 

 live the life of the spirit, separate from the baseness below. 



Even early Christianity, followed literally through the 

 mediaeval centuries, taught an other-worldliness which was the 

 faith and prayer of all pious hearts. 



This world, in the language of all, was not man's home, 

 only his pathway to it, and full of roughness and sorrow. Even 



