Only that people can thrive that loves its land and swears to make it beautiful.
For how can a people stand firmly planted under the sun,
except as mediators between Earth and Heaven-
dedicating the gracious fruits of the ground to all divine uses?
To see that the riches of the Earth go first and foremost to those who produce them
and so onward into the whole structure of socieity;
To render the life of the people clean and gracious,
vital from base to summit, and self-determining;
To make the wild places of the lands sacred,
keeping the streams pure, and planting fresh blooms along their edges;
To preserve the air crystalline and without taint-
tempting the sun to shine where before there was gloom;
To adorn the woodlands and the high tops with new trees and shrubs
and winged and footed things,
sparing all living creatures as far as possible rather than destroying them-
To do all this in singleness of heart were indeed to open up riches for makind
of which few dream,
so much,
so infinitely more,
than what is now called wealth.
(Edward Carpenter, ~Towards Democracy~}
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