LOVE OF NATURE N. P. Willis. There is a gentler element, and man Many breathe it with a calm unruffled soul, And drink its living waters till the heart Is pure.--And this is human happiness! Its secret and its evidence are writ In the broad book of nature. 'Tis to have Attentive and believing faculties; To go abroad rejoicing in the joy Of beautiful and well-created things; To love the voice of waters, and the sheen Of silver fountains leaping to the sea; To thrill with the rich melody of birds Living their life of music; to be glad In the gay sunshine, reverent in the storm; To see a beauty in the stirring leaf, And find calm thoughts beneath the whispering tree; To see, and hear, and breathe the evidence Of God's deep wisdom in the natural world!

"My early recollections of church-going are associated with roses. We went every Sunday to an old Queen Anne church..... In a neighboring pew there was a gentleman who appeared every Sunday with a rose in his buttonhole; I admired that rose, and resolved to wear as good if not a better one the next Sunday. During the week I was on the look-out for a suitable one, and when Sunday came again it was gathered--Moss, White-crested Moss, Red Provence at first, and then Baron de Maynard or Boule de Neige were favourites. I appeared with my bloom, and when the time came to mount the seat compared it wiht the rose in the button-hole of my rival." --Rev. Joseph H. Pemberton, in Roses: Their History, Development, and Cultivation, 1908

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last updated 2001 January 1