n stems and
boughs! What a vast laboratory is here, every root and leaf an expert
chemist!

For other multitudes the earth has become only a huge stable; its fruit
fodder; its granaries ricks, out of which men-cattle feed. These
estimate a man's value according as he has lifted his ax upon tall
trees and ravaged all the loveliness of creation; whose curse is the
Nebuchadnezzar curse, giving to nature the tongue and hand, and
receiving from nature grass; who are doomed to love the corn they
grind, to hear only the roar of the whirlwind and the crash of the
hail, never "the still small voice;" who see what is written in
lamp-black and lightning; who think the clouds are for rain, and know
not that they are chariots, thrones and celestial highways; that the
sunset means something else than sleep, and the morning suggests
something other than work. All these give nature only thought for
food, and food only shall they receive from nature, until all their
deeds are plowed down in dust. Give forth thy gift, young men and
maidens, and according as thou givest thou shalt receive fruit, or
picture, or poem, or temple, or ladder let down from heaven, or angel
aspirations going up.

Conscience also receives its gifts and makes a return. Give thy body
obedience and it will return happiness and health. Give overdrafts and
excesses and it will return sleepless nights and suffering days. Man's
sins are seeds, his sufferings harvests. Every action is embryonic,
and according as it is right or wrong will ripen into sweet fruits of
pleasure or poison fruits of pain. Some seeds hold two germs; and vice
and penalty are wrapped up under one covering. Sins are
self-registering and penalties are automatic. The brain keeps a double
set of books, and at last visits its punishments. Conscience does not
wait for society to ferret out iniquity, but daily executes judgment.
Policemen may slumber and the judge may nod, but the nerves are always
active, memory never sleeps, conscience is never off duty. The recoil
of the gun bruises black the shoulder of him who holds it, and sin is a
weapon that kills at both ends.

In the olden days, when the poisoner was in every palace, the Doge of
Venice offered a reward for a crystal goblet that would break the
moment a poison touched it. Perhaps the idea was suggested to the
Prince because his soul already fulfilled the thought, for one drop of
sin always shatters the cup of joy and wastes lif