kitchen-garden may appeal to some who have no appreciation for the wild
flowers, and who scorn to cultivate such tastes.

One warning is, however, here in order: The cultivation of the garden or
the field for utilitarian purposes is inevitably associated with the maxim,
"Hoe out your row"--an excellent maxim for the idle and disorderly, but not
to be taken too literally by the over-exacting and methodical business man
who is trying to make the radical change in his view of life necessary to
free his mind from the incubus of worry. Nor must the amateur husbandman
scan with too anxious eye the weather map and the clouds. If he mind these
warnings he may learn to say,--

"For me kind Nature wakes her genial pow'r,
Suckles each herb, and spreads out ev'ry flower,
Annual for me, the grape, the rose renew,
The juice nectareous, and the balmy dew."

The over-conscientious individual may object that it is selfish to consider
his own comfort when he has work to do for others. But expending too freely
of our nervous energies, even in a good cause, is like giving to charity
so much of our substance that we in turn are obliged to lean on others for
support.

In properly conserving our own energy we may be lightening the ultimate
burden of others. There is no place for selfishness in Haeckel's philosophy
regarding the proper balance between duty to one's self and duty to others.
Nor was selfishness a failing of the Quaker poet who idealized

"The flawless symmetry of man,
The poise of heart and mind."