THE WIZARDRY OF THE SOIL 



finite and divine force, all the earth beneath 

 our feet becomes holy ground, and man may 

 go back to it at the sunset of life with as little 

 reluctance as falling leaves which live again 

 in flowers. 



For it is not alone upon seeds and roots, 

 which contain their own life-germs, that 

 the earth exercises her mysterious forces. 

 Something strikingly like the healing force 

 of nature, which knits broken bones and heals 

 wounds, the earth manifests in her assimila- 

 tions and reincarnations of decayed matter. 

 This habit is but another phase of the 

 earth's wholesome philosophy of making 

 the best of things, however gruesome those 

 things may be. 



But this phase of the earth's beneficence 

 has been celebrated, as only a poet knows 

 how, by Mr. William Vaughn Moody: 



"Now limb doth mingle with dissolved limb 

 In Nature's busy old democracy, 

 To flush the mountain laurel when she blows 

 Sweet by the southern sea, 

 And heart with crumbled heart 

 Climbs in the rose." 



45 



