THE FRINGED GENTIAN. 



" For the Poet, faithful and far-seeing, 



Sees, alike in stars and flowers, a part 

 Of the self-same, universal being, 



Which is throbbing in his brain and heart." 



Some day we shall see how closely all this is correlated with the 

 naturalist's most brilliant generalization, the doctrine of Evolution. 

 Then we shall have a scientific reason why " one touch of nature 

 makes all the world akin." For man, last and completest in 

 Creation's mighty series, repeats in himself the whole world's history, 

 from primeval chaos to the perfected Beauty and Order, which the 

 Greeks called Kosmos. He is the world. Into the tissue of his 

 nature are woven fibres from every living thing. Fine, invisible 

 threads reach downward and tie him to every humblest and grandest 

 form in Nature's great expanse, — to rock and river, to sea and 

 mountain, to the trees of the forest, to the birds flying through the 

 azure air, to the flowers of the field, to the crimson plant whose 

 delicate frond, fine and fragile as a spider's web, is held and nour- 

 ished all gently in the wavy waters of the sounding sea. 



So we will take with us both the poet and the naturalist in our 

 holiday rambles among the beautiful flowers of our forests, meads, 

 and prairies. The naturalist shall guide our feet to their favorite 

 haunts, in green fields, upon the woody hill-sides, or by babbling 

 brooks ; and he shall tell us what we care to know of their habits, 

 and forms, and curious histories. But the poet shall have our ear 

 not less, and he shall tell us of the finer and higher meanings of these 



" Flowers, so blue and golden. 

 Stars, that in Earth's firmament do shine." 



He shall rehearse to us the enchanting legends which ancient 

 fancy has wrapped about these fair forms, or tell us of the loves 



