20 THE BIOLOGY OF THE SEASONS 



As one of the simple poets of the seasons said 



*'Up! let us to the fields away, 

 And breathe the fresh and balmy air ; 1 

 The bird is building in the tree, 

 The flower has opened to the bee, 

 And health, and love, and peace are there." 



Natures's optimism in the Spring-tide is irresistible ; the 

 frost cannot stand before the sun. They bound Dionysus 

 fast, but they might as well have tried to stop the rush of 

 sap in the vines covering the hillside. Zagreon they cut in 

 pieces, but he had to be put together again. Gloomy 

 Dis robbed Demeter of her Proserpina, but did she not come 

 again out of Hades ? Baldur the beautiful was slain with 

 the wintry mistletoe, but if he did not come to life again, 

 he was at least well avenged by another member of his 

 inexhaustible race. Dornroschen was pierced by a cold 

 spindle, but she slept and did not die, and the Prince kissed 

 her awake. Likewise, in the torrid zone, where life is 

 conquered by heat, not by cold, the Phoenix was consumed, 

 only to rise triumphant from the ashes of his burning. Do 

 not all these images mean much the same thing, that life is 

 insurgent and indomitable ? The northern Winter seems to 

 slay, but the hurt is seldom beyond Spring's curing. Winter 

 seems to put out the fires of life, but the Spring breeze fans 

 them into rampant flame. The corn of wheat that seems 

 to die brings forth much fruit. The Spring's gospel of 

 resurrection is irresistible. 



The Winter is over and gone, but it has been long and 

 hard. Month after month Demeter has been mourning in 

 our midst a Mater Dolorosa seeking her lost child every- 

 where, often angry and terrible, often plaintive and tearful, 

 veiling her lost beauty but not her deep distress. Yet all 

 the while she has shown the strong virtue of maternity. 

 For, explain it who will, she has nursed, without food or 



