A boundless beach, where every stone is a separate microscopic world:
A forest of innumerable trees, where every root is independent.
What then is the marvel or the shame, if units be lost among the million?
Canst thou reasonably murmur, if a leaf drop off unnoticed?
Wondrous in architecture, intricate and beautiful, delicately tinged and scented,
Exquisite of feeling and mysterious in life, none cared for its growth, or its decay:
None? yea,—no one of its fellows,—nor cedar, palm, nor bramble,—
None? its twin-born brother scarcely missed it from the spray:
None?—if none indeed, then man's neglect were bitterness;
And Life a land without a sun, a globe without a God!