of external nature which made the poet say, THE 



.,.,.. GARDEN 



Nature, an infinite unfeeling power, 



From some great center, moving evermore, 

 Keepeth no festal day when man is born, 

 And hath no tears for his mortality. 



But in the garden we get another and wholly 

 different view of nature. Here she comes near 

 to us and speaks in tones of tenderness. Out 

 of the vastness there seem to come, clothed in 

 beauty, messengers to tell us that the Infinite 

 Power is not unmindful of the small and seem- 

 ingly insignificant, but that He clothes the 

 flower with beauty and feeds the birds that 

 nest in the trees. Here nature comes near to 

 our human sympathies as if to enable us to 

 " see into the life of things, " to give us proof of 

 the wisdom and goodness of the Creator, and 

 help us to know that what we see in the beauty 

 and gentleness of the flowers is part and parcel 

 of a Love which "moves the sun and the other 

 stars. " It is the gentler aspects of nature that 

 in the garden soothe and calm the fretted soul, 

 that make us partakers of 



[21] 



