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God might have bade the earth bring forth 
Enough for great and small. 
The oak-tree and the cedar-tree, 
Without a flower at all. 
We might have had enough, enough 
Eor every want of ours, 
For luxury, medicine, and toil, 
And yet have had no flowers. 
The one within the mountain mine 
Requireth none to grow; 
Nor doth it need the lotus-flower 
To make the river flow. 
The clouds might give abundant rain, 
The nightly dews might fall, 
And the herb that keepeth life in man 
Might yet have drunk them all. 
Then wherefore, wherefore were they made, 
All dyed with rainbow light, 
All fashioned with supremest grace, 
Upspringing day and night:— 
Springing in valleys green and low, 
And on the mountains high, 
And in the silent wdlderness 
Where no man passes by? 
Our outward life requires them not— 
Then wherefore had they birth ? 
To minister delight to man , 
To beautify the earth; 
To comfort man , to whisper hope , 
Whene’er his faith is dim; 
For Who so careth for the flowers 
Will much more care for him! 
—Mary Howitt. 
