ON THE MANUSCRIPTS OF GOD 



to any living creature at any time, come he 

 to feed his flocks or his dreams. 



A cultivated field of oats or barley has a 

 charm all its own, enhanced when the wind 

 passes over it and ripples it into poetry. As 

 a field of oats or barley it may be well-nigh 

 faultless, yet its perfection after a time 

 nudges us with that old maxim, "For every- 

 thing you gain you lose something," and 

 with that key-word comes the remembrance 

 of a pine-bordered pasture on the hillside 

 above the cultivated field, a pasture whose 

 wide outlook, and rugged profile of rocks 

 and bowlders, wild berries and ferns make it 

 far richer in the diversity of its suggestion 

 than any cultivated field. 



The shrewd business man may be lured 

 by advertisements of "level fields free from 

 rocks and stones," but the eye of the dreamer 

 is caught and held by a minor clause which 

 mentions a "spring-watered" or "brook- 

 watered pasture with woodland adjoining." 

 For him the very word "pasture" is rich in 

 gentle and poetic associations, wholly un- 

 stirred by other words which apply to any 

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