xi. THE AUTUMN CROCUS. ! 93 



wonderful rejuvenescence of Abraham and Sarah when 

 a century old shows to us that the human body has the 

 same capabilities which the bird possesses in the annual 

 renewing of its plumage, and the tree in the annual 

 renewing of its leaves and flowers. What a beautiful 

 autumn crocus was the coming of Isaac the " laugh- 

 ter " of spring into the aged worn-out life of Abraham ! 

 The venerable patriarch grew young again in the child- 

 hood of his son. A whole new world of beautiful emo- 

 tions and first affections was called into existence by 

 the presence of that child in his home. Every one 

 has observed that as life nears its close it returns to 

 the days of its youth, and brings back again much that 

 marked its beginning. The old man becomes a little 

 child ere he enters the kingdom of heaven. Second 

 childhood plants its vernal flowers amid the sere and 

 yellow leaves of nature's decadence. And the grand- 

 father has more sympathy with, and more that is akin 

 to, the little grandchild, who reminds him of what ' he 

 himself once was, than with his own busy careworn son 

 who has left his childhood so far behind him. 



In the mental sphere the growth of the autumn 

 crocus is much more common than in the physical, and 

 much more precious and beautiful. The physical signs 

 of growth in the midst of old age strike us as a painful 

 incongruity. It is a pathetic and pitiful sight ; for the 

 bloom of youth comes back in such a case without its 

 strength and hope, and the vigour of the child without 

 its unconscious innocence and fresh beauty. But there 

 is no such drawback connected with the renewal of the 



