Genre:

Short Fiction

Subjects:

Beauty, Theology of Nature, Piety

    Miss Arnford, the rector's daughter, befriends the orphan Rose Malcolm. While out walking at sunset, Rose comments on the beauty of the scene. Miss Arnford considers it to proclaim 'its Maker's goodness'. Rose confesses that she had 'thought but of nature' while Miss Arnford had 'remembered the Maker and Giver of it'. She asks: 'why do not I, why does not every one feel as you do, Miss Arnford? Why do I not see God in His works?' Miss Arnford replies: 'The natural heart of man [...] cannot: it "loves not God, nor the things of God"'. (335)