A GARDEN IN VENICE 



scale. Man came now to carry on the work of 

 nature. Escaping from the mainland with life, 

 happy if his skin were whole, he built himself a 

 shelter of reeds, then a cabin of wood, then a cot 

 of burnt earth or brick. Round the cottage the 

 earth grew solid. There is no waste absolute, or 

 loss entire, in God's law. What is rubbish at 

 one time or place serves a wholesome purpose at 

 another, and as man built his better building the 

 old discarded matter took another form and 

 certainly a fairer. 



" There is some soul of goodness in things evil, 

 would man observingly distil it out." He does 

 and rightly does, poor fellow, wittingly or of 

 pure instinct, get from most things as much of 

 good as from them may be got, and so the mud, 

 and dirt, and dust heap, become dry land, was 

 dug and planted, and its crops coming to useful 

 life helped sustain it. The necessary attained, 

 his stomach filled, his eye sought to feed its soul 

 with form and colour. Thus in time grain and 

 roots gave some place to flowers and fruit, till 

 with added charm and beauty, there blossomed 



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