THE BEAUTIFUL LADDER. 1/3 
even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed 
like one of these.’ 
“There is sublimity in a forest, and beauty in 
every leaf trembling in its contiguity of shade, 
but whatever of richness the primitive fields 
and unkept flowers of earth might have pos¬ 
sessed, there was lacking a fitting ministry for 
man’s moral nature until God retouched with a 
finer pencil and a diviner skill, and grouped the 
scattered glories of his hand within the gates 
of Paradise, and thus brought them under the 
enraptured gaze of Adam. Ever since that 
bright creation the truly quickened soul, above 
and clearer than the array of garden-splendors 
that charm and delight the senses, can discern 
the ‘ Lord God walking in the garden,’ sanctify¬ 
ing its walks and receiving the incense of its 
blooming. 
“ The difference between field or forest and 
a garden consists in the careful supervision ap¬ 
parent in the latter, wherein the wild disorder 
of the former is controlled, and by a tasteful 
grouping of plants and flowers richer effects of 
floral splendors are produced. In this way, un¬ 
der the hand of man, the garden has become 
the richest embodiment of earthly beauty. As 
