86 PROSERPINA. 



into wreaths among the fallen crags, in which every leaf re- 

 joicecl, and was at rest. 



6. Now between these two states of equally natural growth, 

 the point of difference that forced itself on me (and practically 

 enough, in the work I had in my own wood), was not so much 

 the withering and waste of the one, and the life of the other, 

 as the thorniness and cruelty of the one, and the softness of 

 the other. In Malham Cove, the stones of the brook were 

 softer with moss than any silken pillow the crowded oxalis 

 leaves yielded to the pressure of the hand, and were not felt 

 the cloven leaves of the Herb-Robert and orbed clusters 

 of its companion overflowed every rent in the rude crags 

 with living balm ; there was scarcely a place left by the ten- 

 derness of the happy things, where one might not lay down 

 one's forehead on their warm softness, and sleep. But in the 

 waste and distressed ground, the distress had changed itself 

 to cruelty. The leaves had all perished, and the bending 

 saplings, and the wood of trust ; but the thorns were there, 

 immortal, and the gnarled and sapless roots, and the dusty 

 treacheries of decay. 



7. Of which things you will find it good to consider also 

 otherwise than botauically. For all these lower organisms 

 suffer and perish, or are gladdened and flourish, under condi- 

 tions which are in utter precision symbolical, and in utter 

 fidelity representative, of the conditions which induce adver- 

 sity and prosperity in the kingdoms of men : and the Eternal 

 Demeter, Mother, and Judge, brings forth, as the herb 

 yielding seed, so also the thorn and the thistle, not to herself, 

 but to thee. 



8. You have read the words of the great Law often enough ; 

 have you ever thought enough of them to know the differ- 

 ence between these two appointed means of Distress? The 

 first, the Thorn, is the type of distress caused by crime, chang- 

 ing the soft and breathing leaf into inflexible and wounding 

 stubbornness. The second is the distress appointed to be the 

 means and herald of good, Thou shaltsee the stubborn this- 

 tle bursting, into glossy purple, which outredden, all voluptu- 

 ous garden roses. 



