The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1884-06-21

Del1rleS, ana trailing long Wells OF cIlng|
ing vines and gray creepers over the
gray stone walls and Struggling fencess
and looping them up in festoons from
porches and trellises. All these things
are made after pattern set by the
Great Master in that far-Off time when
the world began, and there has not
.been the slightest deviation since and
never any attempts at Improvement.
Every spring-time for thousands of
years the whole army of Natures forces
have gone to work to weave the oak
the maple and the birch leaves in the
same old fashion; to paint the violets
and the anemones in the same hues and
hang the catkins and the flower bells
in the same old way. The fashions of
the world may change with every
moon, but the patterns that Natures
weaves, never. And there is no need
of change. If the fashions are old the
work itself is ever new and beautiful
We welcome the rose no less gladly be-
cause its petals are cut in the same
style as in every year as long as we
can remember, and we should never
think of complaining because the cups
of the lilies are of the very same shape
that they were in the days when we
were young. think no one ever feels
put out because the lady-slippers are
exactly like those we used to see wears
ago. We are sure, even without count
ing, that the Oak-leaf has the same
number of notches in its border that
it had when one of them trembled above
the head of the patriarch Jacob when
he was under the oaks by Shechem, and
the daisy has the same number of petals
neither more nor less, that it had whert-
Wordsworth plucked one from an
English meadow years ago, and called
it then 1.-The poets darling" Nature
has a secret here that she never yethas
yielded up: the colors and forms which
she uses never grow old-tashioned nor
lose their power to charm.
When you visit picture-gallery or q
museum of art you see rows of paint
ings on all manner of subjects, some of
them woodland scenes, and landscapes
with fields and gardens in view, many
of them very beautiful, considered as
the work of human hands. Many of
the very finest artists or picture makers
lived years and years ago, and none
since have been able to excel them.
They are called the Old Masters, and
painters in our day study their works
and often copy them.
But in Natures gallery every
work is a masterpiece. Every rose,
every bunch of mignonette, every APP
ple-blossom is perfect after its kind,
and beyond all possibility of exact imf-
tation. The tiniest little flower that
hides in the grass or in the lonely forest
glade, the humblest little picture in the;
gallery, has waXen whiteness and q
delicate flush upon its petals that would
battle the skill of the greatest humans
artist that ever lived.
There is another quality of the great
Creators flower pictures that makes
them vastly superior to anything we
find in the handiwork of man. They
are not only more beautiful to the eye,i
but they have one charm that our art,
lists never attempt to add to their work,
and that is an exquisite perfume. Arti-I
fetal flowers, such as ladies wear, are
often very pretty, but the finest and
costliest of them are greatly inferior to-
real flowers, though of the cOmmonestj
kind, because the former have not the
truest, deepest beauty nor the delightful
fragrance. Who would think of giving
artificial flowers to the poor sick child in
that bare, cherries room within the dry,
hot walls of its city home? [ am sure
one real rosebud, or handful of dali
sizes from a country roadside, would bel
far more welcome to the longing eyes
than all the flowers of wax and wire that
were ever made. There is no simplej
gift more pleasing to those who are shut
out from communion with Nature 5 own
self than bunch of real flowers. They
seem to have voice of love and SYM
pathy for poor, lonely hearts, and they
tell in their own way of the wisdom and
goodness of God who watches over and
cares for everything.
The hand that clothes the trees, and
paints the flowers, and does all things
that are done in the world of Nature, Isl
the hand of our Heavenly Father. He
made the little things of earth as well
as the great things; the tiny flowers as
well as the mighty mountains. What.
lessons of love and humility do these
works of Nature teach us when we-study'
them in a spirit of reverent recognition
Of the mighty power of God!-N. Y. o.
SerUer