Torquato Tasso born 1544.
Alexander Mackenzie died 1820.
Henry Drummond died 1897.
There is nothing that is puerile in nature; and he who becomes
impassioned of a flower, a blade of grass, a butterfly's wing, a
nest, a shell, wraps around a small thing that always contains a
great truth. To succeed in modifying the appearance of a flower is
insignificant in itself, if you will; but reflect upon it for
however short a while and it becomes gigantic.
--Maurice Maeterlinck.
O world, as God has made it! All is beauty:
And knowing this, is love, and love is duty:
What further may be sought for or declared?
--Robert Browning.
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not,
neither do they spin: yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all
his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
--Matthew 6. 28, 29.
Creator of all, I do know that if I may hold myself close enough, I
can hear restful music through the breeze, and find secrets in the
flowers and leaves. I rejoice that thou hast made the woods and rivers
that thou dost love, so I too might possess them, and not be a tenant
of them only. May I look and study deeper the things which bring me
closer to thee. Amen.