Newton convinced his contemporaries that natural laws rule the whole
universe. Lyell showed, by his principle of slow and gradual evolution,
that natural laws have reigned since the beginning of time. To Darwin we
owe the almost universal acceptance of the theory of descent.
This doctrine is one of the most noted landmarks in the advance of
science. It teaches the validity of natural laws of life in its broadest
sense, and crowns the philosophy founded by Newton and Lyell.
Lamarck proposed the hypothesis of a common origin of all living beings
and this ingenious and thoroughly philosophical conception was warmly
welcomed by his partisans, but was not widely accepted owing to lack of
supporting evidence. To Darwin was reserved the task of [2] bringing the
theory of common descent to its present high rank in scientific and
social philosophy.

Sku: speciesandvarieties

At the beginning of the twentieth century there is, strictly speaking,
no frontier to the United States. At the beginning of the nineteenth
century, the larger part of the country was frontier. In any portion of
the country to-day, in the remotest villages and hamlets, on the
enormous farms of the Dakotas or the vast ranches of California, one is
certain to find some, if not many, of the modern appliances of
civilization such as were not dreamed of one hundred years ago. Aladdin
himself could not have commanded the glowing terms to write the
prospectus of the closing years of the nineteenth century. So, too, it
requires an extraordinary effort of the imagination to conceive of the
condition of things in the opening years of that century.
The first quarter of the century closed with the year 1825. At that
date Lincoln was nearly seventeen years old. The deepest impressions of
life are apt to be received very early, and it is certain that the
influences which are felt previous to seventeen years of age have much
to do with the formation of the character.

Sku: thelifeofabrahamlincoln

A jolly-looking preacher is Jack, standing erect in his parti-colored
pulpit with a sounding-board over his head; but he is a gay deceiver, a
wolf in sheep’s clothing, literally a “brother to dragons,” an arrant
upstart, an ingrate, a murderer of innocent benefactors! “Female
botanizing classes pounce upon it as they would upon a pious young
clergyman,” complains Mr. Ellwanger. A poor relation of the stately
calla lily one knows Jack to be at a glance, her lovely white robe
corresponding to his striped pulpit, her bright yellow spadix to his
sleek reverence. In the damp woodlands where his pulpit is erected
beneath leafy cathedral arches, minute flies or gnats, recently emerged
from maggots in mushrooms, toadstools, or decaying logs, form the main
part of his congregation.

Sku: wildflowers02

In the descriptive ballad which follows, it will be evident that I have
endeavoured to preserve the style of a gossip, and to transmit the
memorial of a custom, the extent or antiquity of which I am not acquainted
with, and pretend not to enquire.
In Suffolk husbandry the man who, (whether by merit or by sufferance I
know not) goes foremost through the harvest with the scythe or the sickle,
is honoured with the title of “_Lord_,” and at the Horkey, or harvest-home
feast, collects what he can, for himself and brethren, from the farmers
and visitors, to make a “frolick” afterwards, called “the largess
spending.” By way of returning thanks, though perhaps formerly of much
more, or of different signification, they immediately leave the seat of
festivity, and with a very long and repeated shout of “a largess,” the
number of shouts being regulated by the sums given, seem to wish to make
themselves heard by the people of the surrounding farms. And before they
rejoin the company within, the pranks and the jollity I have endeavoured
to describe, usually take place. These customs, I believe, are going fast
out of use; which is one great reason for my trying to tell the rising
race of mankind that such were the customs when I was a boy.

Sku: wildflowers

LIFE-SKETCH:
Birth-place–The Forest (a poem)–Conviction of sin–Baptism and
Resolutions–Experience–Diary notes in verse–Sufferings–Last poem–
The One Name and The Adieu (poetry)–Death

RURAL SCENES:

The Walk in June.
An Evening Meditation.
Nature’s Resurrection.
The Bird’s Nest.
Gather Violets.
To a Dandelion.
To a Robin.
God is There.
The Canadian Farmer.
The Return.
The Old Sugar-Camp.
To a Rabbit.
The Old Man.
The Fading and the Unfading (prose).
On Receipt of some Wild Flowers.
The Sick Girl’s Dream.
The Last Song.
An Evening Scene.
Autumn Teachings (prose).
The Watcher.

Sku: canadianwildflowers

124 pages of writings by Helen Johnson about life & love.

PREFACE.

An observance of the hand of God in his providences, as well as of his
Spirit in the written Word and in the human heart, has led to the
publication of this book. Though more than twenty years hare passed
since Miss JOHNSON died, her name is like “an ointment poured forth.”
Many who never knew her personally seem to know her well from her
poetic writings: for “as fragrance to the sense of smell, music to the
ear, or beauty to the eye, so is poetry to the sensibilitiheart,–it ministers to a want of our intellectual nature;

Sku: CanWldFlowers