WHEN SOUL HELPS FLESH 59 



that the china cat, cozily dozing on the fence to be a 

 menace to hungry doves, was touched with a wand over- 

 night and invited all stray kittens to join her and make 

 merry. Surely that is a fluffy angora on its back, playing 

 with the strings stretched for the passion vine, a precious 

 vine carried from an old plantation down in Alabama; 

 and, if eyes do not deceive, another kitten is hunting 

 catnip among the flourishing fringed phlox and snap- 

 dragons. Had we been up with the dawn this would not 

 have happened. 



"To sum up the whole matter, this unmitigated hostil- 

 ity of the cultured man (with Jacob's smooth hand and 

 Esau's wild blood) to the amenities of civilized life, 

 brings us back to the point whence we started at the com- 

 mencement of this chapter. While men are what they 

 are, art is not all. Man has viking passions as well as 

 Eden instincts. Man is of mixed blood, whose sym- 

 pathies are not so much divided as double. And all man 

 asks for is all of nature, and is not content with less. To 

 the over-civilized man " 



This was the page at which the book fell open beside 

 the breakfast plate, and we lost the aroma of the first cup 

 of coffee reading more. The unfolding of the scheme of 

 life, whether in gardens or on streets, is just this thing 

 pitched battle with two enemies, that of inclination and 

 that of the tide of human fellows and nature's followers 

 at our elbows. Turn the fight to rout one, and the other 



