New Walks in Old Ways 



that have thus far defied all our efforts 

 to make them serve us certainly tends 

 to discredit the theory that all things 

 that live in earth or air or sea were 

 created for our own particular benefit. 

 We shall either have to find some 

 human use for everything that exists 

 around us, or acknowledge that much 

 that we see was placed here to serve 

 some other purpose than our own; 

 which is to admit that we are after all 

 not the only things worth while in this 

 mundane scheme, and that in de- 

 stroying so-called "weeds," and in 

 classing vast quantities of inorganic 

 matter as "useless," we are only con- 

 fessing how little we really know. 



If thistles, for instance, were not 

 intended by Nature to multiply, and 

 occupy great areas, why did the Old 

 Mother invest them with such resisting 

 powers, and guard the fruit so jealously 

 until matured and ready for consign- 

 ment to the winged winds ? Until this 

 arrogant being called man can find out 

 [128] 



