How Often Are the Beauties

by Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps

How often are the beauties of nature
unheeded by man, who,
musing on past ills,
brooding over the possible calamities of the future,
building castles in the air,
or wrapped up in his own self-love and self-importance,
forgets to look abroad,
or looks with a vacant stare.

 

 

Note: Almira wrote about nature, and her textbook, Familiar Lectures on Botany, was first published in 1829. Almira taught at Amherst Academy, and her textbook was undoubtedly known and used by Emily Dickinson, who was a student there. Almira's writing shows us she was hip to the idea of mindfulness over 200 years ago. 


As featured on
The Daily Gardener podcast:

Words inspired by the garden are the sweetest, most beautiful words of all.
Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps
Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps

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