Rudyard Kipling's "The Glory of the Garden"

This passage describes England as a beautiful garden with statues, peacocks, and various gardening tools. The heart of the garden lies in the sheds and hothouses where the gardeners work diligently. The glory of the garden is not just in its appearance but in the hard work and dedication of those who tend to it. Everyone, regardless of their abilities, can contribute to the garden's glory. The passage emphasizes the importance of finding joy and purpose in one's work, even in the simplest tasks like weeding or killing slugs. The role of gardening is compared to that of Adam, with the suggestion that prayer is a fitting way to honor the garden's beauty. Our England is a garden that is full of stately views, of borders, beds, and shrubberies, and lawns and avenues, with statues on the terraces and peacocks strutting by. But the glory of the garden lies in more than meets the eye. For where the old thick laurels grow, along the thin red wall, you'll find the tulle and potting sheds, which are the heart of all. The cold frames and the hothouses, the dung pits and the tanks, the rollers, carts, and drain pipes, with the barrows and the planks. And there you'll see the gardeners, the men and prentice boys, told off to do as they are bid, and do it without noise. For except when seeds are planted, and we shout to scare the birds, the glory of the garden it abideth not in words. And some can pot begonias, and some can butter rose, and some are hardly fit to trust with anything that grows. But they can roll and trim the lawns, and sift the sand and loam, for the glory of the garden occupieth all who come. For England is a garden, and such gardens are not made, by singing, oh how beautiful, and sitting in the shade, while better men than we go out and start their working lives at grubbing weeds from gravel paths with broken dinner knives. There's not a pair of legs so thin, there's not a head so thick, there's not a hand so weak and white, nor get a heart so sick. But it can find some needful job that's crying to be done, for the glory of the garden glorifieth every one. Then seek your job with thankfulness, and work till further orders, if it's only netting strawberries or killing slugs on borders. And when your back stops aching, and your hands begin to harden, you will find yourself a partner in the glory of the garden. Oh Adam was a gardener, and God who made him sees, that half a proper gardener's work is done upon his knees. So when your work is finished, you can wash your hands and pray, for the glory of the garden, that it may not pass away.