178 THE HEART OF NATURE 



they reach after the most Divine they are impelled 

 by the most elemental. What, in fact, happens is 

 that the elemental is inspired through and through 

 with the Divine. 



The union of man and woman is the flower of 

 Nature. But, like the rose, it bears within it the 

 seed from which some still more beautiful flower 

 may result. No pair, however sublime their union, 

 suppose that it is the best that could by any pos- 

 sibility at any time exist. An absolutely perfect 

 union depends upon an absolutely perfect pair in 

 absolutely perfect surroundings. And no one sup- 

 poses that he himself is perfect or that the world 

 around him is perfect. So there is in the pair a con- 

 sciousness of imperfection, a vision of perfection, 

 and a desperate yearning to be more perfect and to 

 make the world more perfect. Deep and strong as 

 the creative impulse itself is the impulse to improve- 

 ment. It is due to this impulse that the mother 

 reaches over her child with such loving care, strives 

 to shield it from all harm, social as well as physical, 

 and to give it a better chance than she herself en- 

 joyed. It is due to this same impulse that the man 

 works to leave his profession, his business, his 

 science, his art, his country, better than he found it. 

 It is due to this impulse also that men as a whole are 

 driven to improve the whole Earth, to improve 

 plants, flowers, trees, animals, men, and make the 

 world a better place for their successors than it has 

 ever been for them. 



The pair — even the most splendid pair that has 

 ever wedded — ^have deep within them this perhaps 

 unrecognised impulse to improvement. They 



