52 FLOWER-FIELDS OF ALPINE SWITZERLAND 



of most other plants. They are what incessant 

 warfare has made of them ; they dehght in it. 

 Strenuous children of strenuous circumstance, they 

 are self-reliant to a degree, and hold themselves 

 with a winning air of independence. But it is 

 independence begot of strict dependence ; they 

 admit as much quite frankly and sanely — an ad- 

 mittal of which man might well make a note in 

 red ink. Nature all over the world is saying, not, 

 " I^et me help you to be independent," but, " You 

 shall and must depend upon me for your inde- 

 pendence." And no living things have better 

 understood this truth than have the Alpines ; no 

 living things have acknowledged and mastered this 

 obligation more thoroughly than they. Hence 

 their beauty ; hence their serenity and *' nerve " ; 

 hence their "blended holiness of earth and sky." 

 Mark with what consummate efficiencj^ these 

 Alpine field-flowers cope with stern inclemency. 

 Tossed and torn by storms for which the Alps 

 are famous, see how they anchor themselves to 

 Mother Earth ! Washed by torrential rains upon 

 the rapid slopes, or parched by the most personal 

 of suns, small wonder that their roots, in many 

 cases, should form by far the greater part of their 

 bulk and stature. They recall to mind that learned 



