Music of the Wild 



ers have no perfume whatever and are not visited 

 by sweet-lovers. If color were only a signal to in- 

 sects, it might as well be all red or yellow. If 

 petals were solely an attraction to honey-gatherers, 

 why call bees and butterflies to bloom having no 

 sweetness? It is as sure as can be that flowers are 

 not only for sweet-lovers, but for us, to give pleas- 

 ure, to glorify the landscape, to set a joy-song 

 singing in the soul. 



Flower forms are complicated, beautiful past 

 describing, and their colors varied to suit every de- 

 The gree of taste and circumstance of usage. The 

 Patent- Lord gave the blossoms decorating the earth, as a 

 Divinity masterstroke, a finishing touch, the patent-right of 

 Divinity stamped upon the face of His work. 

 Then surely it is an offense to Him ruthlessly to 

 tear up plants by the root, and to kill them for 

 the moment's gratification. Any one who wishes 

 to preserve a proper spirit of gratitude to God for 

 His gift of the flowers will cut a few carefully, 

 and leave the plant to bloom another year, or ma- 

 ture its seed. I think, further, that any person of 

 refined taste not only will leave a plant alive, and 

 a part of its bloom to mature seed ; but he also will 

 leave some of its flowers for the next traveler of 

 the road. The highway stretches endlessly, and 

 human souls more sensitive than you would dream 

 are upon it each hour. There is not always a song 

 on every lip. The lines on some faces indicate wea- 

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