108 PHILLIDA AND CORIDON. 



could be simpler or more delightful ? Carried 

 on in this way, eating is no longer the coarse 

 and sensual thing we make it, with our set 

 meal-times and elaborate preparations. 



Country children know that there are two 

 ways to go berrying. According to the first 

 of these you stroll into the pasture in the cool 

 of the day, and at your leisure pick as many as 

 you choose of the ripest and largest of the ber- 

 ries, putting every one into your mouth. This 

 is agreeable. According to the second, you 

 carry a basket, which you are expected to bring 

 home again well filled. And this method 

 well, tastes will differ, but following the good 

 old rule for judging in such cases, I must be- 

 lieve that most unsophisticated persons prefer 

 the other. The hand-to-mouth process cer- 

 tainly agrees best with our idea of life in Eden ; 

 and, what is more to the purpose now, it is the 

 one which the birds, still keeping the garden 

 instead of tilling the ground, continue to follow. 



That this unworldliness of the birds has any 

 religious or theological significance I do not 

 myself suppose. Still, as anybody may see, 

 there are certain very plain Scripture texts on 

 their side. Indeed, if birds were only acute 

 theologians, they would unquestionably proceed 

 to turn these texts (since they find it so easy to 

 obey them) into the basis of a " system of 



