190 
"BRAMBLES AND BAY LEAVES. 
spirit, exist but as materials for that future juvenescence, 
when the will and the intellect shall act together. 
The history of man, no less than the history of nature, 
teaches this lesson of evolution. Wrapped up in the 
oval bud of spring are the blossoms and fruits of the 
summer; and in the impulsive heart, beating in harmony 
with the instinctive nature of the primaeval man, are 
enfolded the acts of his illimitable successors. The 
shepherd-life, with its simplicity and peace, is seen again 
in the radiant face of the infant, and the violet tender¬ 
ness of the spring. The age of chivalry, with its costly 
pomp, its clang and clash of arms, its great deeds of 
daring and sacrifice, break out in the hours of individual 
passion when manhood has not yet set its seal on the 
brow, and when the outward semblance of heroism is 
mistaken for the supporting and sustaining ardour which 
springs from manly determinations. The first flush of 
summer has it, too, when the fruits are yet unripe, and 
storms dash in and out between the leaf-laden branches. 
But the autumn and the browning leaf must come, and 
it is already here around us. Who, then, is worthy to 
die—worthy as the leaves are, all of whose duties have 
been fulfilled ? Who is worthy to convert body and 
soul into a soil for the growth of the next generation of 
men, whose bodies are to be formed out of the elements 
of ours—whose spirits are to be fed with the aims, and 
hopes, and knowledge we have nurtured, and which we 
must bequeath to them by an inevitable necessity ? 
Who among us has been living all these years in vain, 
watching the greening and the browning of the leaves, 
without taking heed that his autumn must come, and 
