We are to remember what an umpire Nature is; what a greatness, composure of depth and tolerance there is in her. You take wheat to cast into the Earth's bosom; your wheat may be mixed with chaff, chopped straw, barn-sweepings, dust and all imaginable rubbish; no matter: you cast it into the kind just Earth; she grows the wheat, - the whole rubbish she silently absorbs, shrouds it in, says nothing of the rubbish. The yellow wheat is growing there; the good Earth is silent about all the rest, - has silently turned all the rest to some benefit too, and makes no complaint about it! So everywhere in Nature! She is true and not a lie; and yet so great, and just, and motherly in her truth. She requires of a thing only that it be genuine of heart; she will protect it if so; will not, if not so. There is a soul of truth in all the things she ever gave harbor to. Alas, is not this the history of all highest Truth that comes or ever came into the world?
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Nature acts as a fair and maternal umpire that absorbs impurities and nurtures what is genuine and true.
- In plain terms
- Nature quietly turns waste into benefit and protects only things that are genuine at heart.
- What can you take from it?
- Genuineness is required for protection and growth within nature.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What does it mean to be genuine of heart?
- How does nature handle waste?
Another view
Nature does not always visibly protect every genuine thing from harm.
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