116 THROUGH GLADE AND MEAD. 
but the whole world is richer for the poetic expression 
of the thoughts for which he found words. In the in- 
terval between 1812 when he wrote ‘‘Thanatopsis” and 
1876 when he wrote its counterpart, “The Flood of 
” 
Years,” there is no decay of the high poetic faculty, 
ever the same serene song. It is not easy to estimate 
exactly the influence of such poetry upon the life of a 
people, but it is very plain that, if we had more little 
poems like ‘To the Fringed Gentian” and Emerson’s 
“ Rhodora,” Wordsworth’s “ Daffodils” and Burns’ “To 
a Mountain Daisy,” even with the greatly changed con- 
ditions of modern life, our flora would assume a greater 
interest in our minds, and the pleasure of living would 
have an added zest. 
After the fringed gentian has bloomed we know 
there is nothing new to be expected save the fantastic 
witch-hazel. Like the witch-elm of Great Britain, it 
was formerly used for divining rods, and I have seen it 
used in recent years to determine the location of water 
before the digging of a well. Its magic powers might 
have been originally suggested by its peculiar habit of 
bearing flowers in the autumn even after its leaves have 
fallen, thus reversing the general order of Nature; per- 
haps, by the fact that it does not ripen its fruit-capsules 
until the following summer, so that buds, flowers and 
fruit may be found in perfection upon it at the same 
