THE STUDY OF THE DANDELION. 37 



With legends of my childhood ; ah, we owe 

 Well more than half life's holiness to these 



Nature's first lowly influences, 



At thought of which the heart's glad doors burst ope, 

 In dreariest days, to welcome peace and hope. 



We cannot stop with the aesthetic beauty and the 

 symbolism and ethical lessons of our wayside friend. 

 Everything about it points to its Source. It is one of 

 " these living pages of God's book," a leaf in the 

 "manuscript of God." Its form and structure and 

 plan, and, much more, its life and adaptation or fitness 

 for its place, point to its Maker. Unless we, and our 

 boys and girls, look from nature and through nature 

 up to nature's God, our study of the dandelion or of 

 nature has missed its highest value. In this highest 

 spiritual relation we discover that which illumines and 

 relates and unifies all else. . 



Perhaps we can now better understand and appreciate 

 the thought from Tennyson with which we began, 



"Flower in the crannied wall, 

 I pluck you out of the crannies ; 

 Hold you here, root and all, in my hand, 

 Little flower but if I could understand 

 What you are, root and all, and all in all, 



I should know what God and man is." 



