118 FLOWER-FIELDS OF ALPINE SWITZERLAND 



Corn, and it is said that in the kitchen-garden the 

 Radish simply detests the Thyme. But here, on 

 these meadows, all trace of discord seems lost in 

 one great accord, and the plants, both great and 

 small, blue-blooded and plebeian, 



" A social conimeix'e hold, and firm support 

 The full adjusted harmony of things." 



And what pageantry it all is ; what consummate 

 pageantry ! " The flowers are at their Bacchanals!" 

 The Old Mother, unlike many other parents, is not 

 outdistanced by her children. Though man be 

 loath to admit it, she holds the lead, and sets him 

 both pace and tune. What are his pageants 

 beside the pageantry of this his age-full parent ? 

 He summons up his past for glory, and, rightly 

 or wrongly, sees magnificence only in what he has 

 been ; but his old mother, as here on these fairy 

 fields, seeks naught further than the present. 

 Were it not well that he read in this the lesson : 

 " Nature must once more become his home, as it 

 is the home of the animals and angels " ? Were 

 it not well that he should shift his ground and thus 

 amend his outlook ? Scarcely does it befit him to 

 brag about 



" Nature's fair, fruitless, aimless world 

 Men take and mould at will ! " 



