It seems to me the worst of all the plagues is the slug, the snail without a shell. He is beyond description repulsive, a mass of sooty, shapeless slime, and he devours everything.

Of all the wonderful things in the wonderful universe of God, nothing seems to me more surprising than the planting of a seed in the blank earth and the result thereof. Take that Poppy seed, for instance: it lies in your palm, the merest atom of matter, hardly visible, a speck, a pin's point in bulk, but within it is imprisoned a spirit of beauty ineffable, which will break its bonds and emerge from the dark ground and blossom in a splendor so dazzling as to baffle all powers of description.

One golden day redeems a weary year

To stand by the beds at sunrise and see the flowers awake is a heavenly delight.

It is curious that the leaf should so love the light and the root so hate it.

Look to the East, where up the lucid sky; the morning climbs! The day shall yet be fair.

When in these fresh mornings I go into my garden before any one is awake, I go for the time being into perfect happiness.