FLORIDA DAYS.


light, with, perhaps, the same rejoicing in them
all that the date-palm has, or the gray fence,
crumbling under the tufts of lichen.
 To lean back against the coquina wall, which
 glitters here and there, as the sun strikes the
 edge of an iridescent wonder, which meant life
 in the green stillness of the sea a thousand
 years ago; to feel, and to desire to feel, of no
 more importance in the universe than a block
 in the broken wall; or the motionless shadow
 of the date-palm, lying like a gray feather upon
 the dust of the dreaming street, -is good
 for the soul. Experiences begin to show their
 values relatively, and the proportions of life
 reveal themselves. But it needs the coquina
 wall gleaming faintly in the sunshine, and the
 breath of the drowsy air, and the shadow of the
 palm, to set the jarring atom of consciousness
 back into the tranquil and enfolding purpose of
 Eternity. Such an hour is the man's Bo-tree.
 In it, truly, he gains the whole world, if he can
lose his own soul.
 It is extraordinary what a shame (not a pas-
sionate and tumultuous shame, that were not