§ 69
Have I too much belauded the country walk? I do not thereby decry the outdoor sport. The thorough sportsman is the noblest work of God (apologies to the shade of Alexander Pope!). Athletics, said that acute philosophical historian, Goldwin Smith, "wash the brain." Well, sometimes I think a really good country walk cleans the soul. You get away from rivalries and trivialities; from scandal, gossip, and paltriness; you get away from your compeers and your neighbours—perhaps you learn for the first time who your neighbour is—namely, your fellow-farer in distress, as the Good Samaritan long ago taught; you get away from barter and commerce, from manners and customs, from forms and ceremonies; from the thousand and one complications that arise when a multitude of hearts that do not beat as one try to live in a too close contiguity. It was only when the inevitable third party appeared upon the scene (as I think someone must have said) that Adam and Eve ceased to be good, put on clothes, and hid themselves from the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden. It is easy to be generous amongst trees and grass and running water; one feels good 'neath the blue firmament on the open earth; ghosts vanish that scent the morning air, and glow-worms pale their uneffectual fire. For to everyone—I care not whether theist, deist, or atheist—to everyone Nature instinctively, spontaneously, proclaims herself an infinitely adorable Mystery. If there is anything above and beyond the ephemeral and the fleeting; if there is somewhere some immensity of Being, some source of All, would it not be well sometimes to make haste and bow the head towards the earth and worship?[61]
Some immensity of Being. It is to this that in reality all Nature points. The clouds, the skies, the greenery of earth, the myriad forms of vegetation at our feet, stir as these may the soul to its depths, they are but single chords in the orchestra of Life. It is the great pæan of Being that Nature chants. By them it is that we perceive "the immense circulation of life which throbs in the ample bosom of Nature, a life which surges from an invisible source and swells the veins of this universe."[62] Through them it is that we detect the enormous but incomprehensible unity which underlies this incommensurable multiplicity. The wavelet's plash; the purl of the rill; the sough of the wind in the pines—these are but notes in the divine diapason of Life, of Life singing its cosmic song, unmindful who may hear.—Alas, that so few hear aught but a thin and scrannel sound!
INDEX
- A
- Abbott, Charles C., [13]
- Action, a struggle to overcome space and time, [131]
- Advertisements, hint as to taxing, [200]
- Alcohol, proper use of, [142] et seq.
- All, the, [129] et seq.
- Amiel, Henri-Frédéric, [128];
- Aphrodites, the two, [165]
- Appearance, something behind, [87]
- Arve, the river, [167]
- Autumn in Canada, [107] et seq.
- Autumn reveries, [29]
- Avebury, Lord, quoted, [185], [186]
- B
- Bannock, the, [156]
- Beans, how to cook, [157], [158]
- Beauty, [110];
- Being, the pæan of, [223] et seq.;
- immensity of, [225]
- Belloc, Hilaire, quoted, [151]
- Beverages, [142] et seq.
- Blood corpuscles, an analogy from, [93] et seq.
- Boots, [135]
- Borrow, George, [14];
- Browning, Robert, quoted, [163], [164]
- Buckinghamshire, a walk in, [31] et seq.
- Burma, [15]
- Burroughs, John, [12];
- Byways, English, [21] et seq.
- C
- Calm, Matthew Arnold on, [77]
- Campbell, Professor W. W., quoted, [177]
- Canada, spring in, [45] et seq.;
- Carlyle, Thomas, quoted, [196], [197]
- Carpenter, Edward, [103];
- Cattle, mountain, [172]
- Cave man, the, [138], [139]
- Cities, crowded populations of, [218] et seq.
- Civilisation a mixed boon, [216] et seq.
- Companion, an uncongenial, [113], [114]
- Conscience, [42] et seq.
- Cosmos, the, [93]
- Country, the, calming influence of, [127]
- D
- Darwin, Charles, quoted, [170], [171]
- Death, a change, [95]
- De Quincey, Thomas, quoted, [199]
- Details, practical, [152] et seq.
- Dietary, the tramp's, [140] et seq.
- Downs, the Sussex, [25] et seq.
- Drama, a natural, [79] et seq.
- E
- East, the fascination of the, [19]
- Emigration, [222]
- England, byways in, [22] et seq.;
- a spring morning in, [25] et seq.
- Enthusiasts, cautions for, [181] et seq.
- Euripides, quoted, [194]
- Evening walks, [78] et seq.
- Evil, origin of, [97] et seq.
- G
- Georgian Bay, the, [53]
- Glacial epoch, the, [138], [139]
- Goethe, quoted, [194]
- Golf and walking, [1] et seq.;
- Guérin, Eugénie de, quoted, [211]
- Guérin, Maurice de, quoted, [186], [187]; [225], [226]
- H
- Haig, Dr Alexander, [145]
- Harte, Bret, quoted, [159], [160]
- Hassocks, [25]
- Hearth, the, [137], [139]
- Hurstpierpoint, [25]
- I
- Ideal, unrealisability of, [132]
- Impedimenta, [151]
- India, [17] et seq.
- Infinite, the, [128];
- how that all things point to the, [188] et seq.
- Instincts, primitive, [162] et seq.
- K
- Kipling, Rudyard, quoted, [170]
- Kingston Road, the, [119], [120]
- Knapsack, contents of, [152] et seq.
- L
- Landscape, the beauty of, [159] et seq.
- Life, a process, [37] et seq.;
- Literature, modern, [218], [219]
- M
- Mabie, Hamilton Wright, [12], [13]
- MacLane, Mary, quoted, [160]
- Meditations, evening, [78] et seq.
- Memories, cosmic, [162]
- Memory, idea of time dependent on, [92], [93]
- Milk, value of, [147]
- Milky Way, the, [56]
- Morning air, a steriliser, [210]
- Morning walk, an early, [205]; [208]
- Morning walks, [72] et seq.
- Mountains, peacefulness of, [173], [174]
- Müller, Max, [112]
- Multiplicity, subjective character of, [95]
- Mystery, the, of nature, [39]; [85];
- P
- Pantry, the antiquity of the, [155]
- Pascal, quoted, [101]
- Plato, quoted, [165]
- Plotinus, [89], [90]
- Poynings, village, [25]
- R
- Reason, inadequacy of, [97];
- Religious tenets, criterion of, [102]
- Responsibility, [96], [97]
- Rhône, the, [167]
- Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, quoted, [202]-204
- Ruskin, John, quoted, [161]; [220], [221]
- S
- Salève, the Grand, [167] et seq.
- Savoie, Haute, [172]
- Science, [191]
- Seclusion, benefits of, [117]
- Self-consciousness, [217], [218]
- Sénancour, quoted, [161]
- Sense, a seventh, [186]
- Solar system, motion of, [176], [177]
- "Son of the Marshes, A," 13
- Soul, the, [113]
- Space, subjective character of, [91]; [95]
- Spirit of eternal things, the, [39], [85]
- Stayner, [53]
- Stephen, Sir Leslie, [14]
- Strife, universality of, [176]
- Sunday in a country town, [121] et seq.
- Sunshine, Canadian, [70], [71]
- T
- Tea, as a stimulant, [145] et seq.
- Tennyson, quoted, [190]
- Thatcher, T., quoted, [75]
- Thoreau, Henry D., [12];
- Thought, a struggle to conceive the infinite, [131]
- Time, subjective character of, [91], [92], [95]
- Toronto, [119]
- Tragedies, [124] et seq.
- Transcendentalism, practical, [40] et seq.
- Troglodytic families, [138]
- V
- Van Dyke, Henry, [13]
- W
- Walk, the essence of a, [5] et seq.;
- a woeful, [105] et seq.
- Walkers, notable, [9] et seq.
- Walking tour, preparations for a, [133] et seq.
- Walking tours, [133] et seq.
- Walks and walking, effects of golf upon, [2] et seq.;
- Walks, my earliest, [15] et seq.;
- in Burma, ibid.;
- in India, [17] et seq.;
- in England, [21] et seq.;
- on the Sussex Downs, [25] et seq.;
- in Buckinghamshire, [31] et seq.;
- in Canada, [45] et seq.;
- on the banks of the Otonabee, [47] et seq.;
- by the Georgian Bay, [53] et seq.;
- on the outskirts of an Ontarian country town, [59] et seq.;
- a woeful walk, [105], [106];
- from Toronto, along the Kingston Road, [107] et seq.;
- over one of the Passes of the Jura, [149], [150];
- on the Grand Salève, [167] et seq.;
- early on Monday mornings, [205], [206];
- of a Sunday before breakfast, [208] et seq.
- Walton, Izaak, quoted, [72], [73], [74]
- Warnings, [180]
- Whiting, Charles Goodrich, [13]
- Will, [96], [97];
- freedom of the, [99] et seq.
- Winter in Canada, [62] et seq.
- Wood, Edith Elmer, quoted, [143] et seq.
- Woods, Canadian, [63] et seq.
- Wordsworth, William, quoted, [7], [111], [112]
THE RIVERSIDE PRESS LIMITED, EDINBURGH
[1] See Henry D. Thoreau's "Walden"; "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers"; "Winter"; etc.
[2] See John Burroughs, his "Birds and Poets"; "Locusts and Wild Honey"; "Pepacton"; "Signs and Seasons"; "Wake Robin"; "Winter Sunshine"; etc.
[3] See Richard Jefferies, his "Amateur Poaching"; "Field and Hedgerow"; "Wild Life in a Southern County"; "Nature near London"; "Round about a Great Estate"; "Wood Magic"; "The Story of my Heart."
[4] See Hamilton Wright Mabie's "In the Forest of Arden"; "Under the Trees and Elsewhere"; etc.
[5] See Henry Van Dyke's "Fisherman's Luck, and some other Uncertain Things"; "Little Rivers: A Book of Essays in Profitable Idleness"; "Days Off, and other Digressions"; etc.
[6] See "In the Green Leaf and the Sere," by "A Son of the Marshes." Edited by J. A. Owen. Illustrated by G. C. Haïté and D. C. Nicholl. Also "Drift from Longshore," by the same author and editor.
[7] See Charles C. Abbott's "Upland and Meadow"; "Wasteland Wanderings"; "The Birds About Us"; "A Naturalist's Rambles about Home"; "Outings at Odd Times"; "Recent Rambles, or, In Touch with Nature"; "Travels in a Tree Top"; "Birdland Echoes"; "Notes of the Night, and other Outdoor Sketches"; etc.
[8] See Charles Goodrich Whiting's "Walks in New England"; etc.
[9] See George Borrow's "Wild Wales: Its People, Language and Scenery."
[10] "Obermann," lettre ii.
[11] See his "In Praise of Walking," in The Monthly Review (London: Murray) of August, 1901.
[12] Mr Robert F. Stupart, in the "Handbook of Canada," published by the Publication Committee of the Local Executive [of the British Association for the Advancement of Science], Toronto: 1897, p. 78.
[13] See "The Compleat Angler," chapter i.
[14] Ibid.
[15] See a delightful letter to The Publishers' Circular of September the 27th, 1902; vol. lxxvii., p. 325, on "A Plea for a Long Walk," by T. Thatcher, of 44 College Green, Bristol, England. Also another letter by the same writer on "42 Miles on 2d. at the Age of 64," in the same periodical in its issue of April the 25th, 1903; vol. lxxviii., p. 457. The "2d." means that his food consisted of dry brown-bread crusts only, the cost of which he computes at twopence.
[16] "Pepacton," Foot Paths, p. 205.
[17] Confer.—"The primal One, from which all things are, is everywhere and nowhere. As being the cause of all things, it is everywhere. As being other than all things, it is nowhere.... No predicate of Being can be properly applied to it.... It is greatest of all, not by magnitude, but by potency.... It is to be regarded as infinite, not because of the impossibility of measuring or counting it, but because of the impossibility of comprehending its power. It is perfectly all-sufficing."—"The Neo-Platonists: A Study in the History of Hellenism." By Thomas Whittaker. Cambridge, 1901. Chapter v., pp. 58, 59.
[18] See his General Introduction to Ward's "English Poets," vol. i., p. xvii. London and New York: Macmillan, 1880.
[19] "The Mystery of Golf." By Arnold Haultain. Second Edition. Pp. 153, 154. London and New York: Macmillan, 1910.
[20] Pascal, "Pensees," XVI. iv.
[21] Ibid. iii.
[22] Tennyson, "The Ancient Sage."
[23] See his "Farthest North," ii. 73 et seq.; 76 et seq.; et passim.
[24] "An Oberland Chalet." By Edith Elmer Wood. London: T. Werner Laurie. No date, but probably circa 1912. Pp. 256-260.
[25] And I thank you, C.B.L.
[26] "The Path to Rome," p. 16.
[27] Ibid., p. 341.
[28] For these I am entirely indebted to my younger brother, Professor Herbert E. T. Haultain, A.M.Inst.C.E., etc.
[29] Quoted in The Academy and Literature (London) of October the 4th, 1902, p. 340.
[30] "The Story of Mary MacLane," by Herself. Chicago: Herbert S. Stone & Company, 1902.
[31] In The New York World of September the 14th, 1902, p. 7.
[32] "Wild Wales," Introduction.
[33] "The Seven Lamps of Architecture," chapter vi., The Lamp of Memory, §i.
[34] Obermann, Lettre XXXVI.
[35] And his bride complained of the damp! (βαλλεις εις αμαραν με, και ειματα καλα μιαινεις.—Theocritus, Idyll XXVII. 52).
[36] Browning, "Two in the Campagna."
[37] Confer Edward Carpenter: "The Drama of Love and Death: A Study of Human Evolution and Transfiguration," page 51. London: George Allen, 1912. Also Mr Havelock Ellis, his "Studies in the Psychology of Sex," vol. vi., p. 558.
[38] See Plato, Symposium, 180:—"παντες γαρ ισμεν, οτι ουκ εστιν ανευ Ερωτος Αφροδιτη, κ. τ. λ."
[39] "Sussex," first stanza.—"The Five Nations," p. 69. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1903.
[40] "The Voyage of the Beagle," chapter xx.
[41] Professor W. W. Campbell, of the Lick Observatory, California, computes the velocity of the Solar System through space at approximately nineteen kilomètres per second (see Lick Observatory Bulletin, No. 195, vol. vi. (1910-1911), p. 123. See also Bulletin No. 196, vol. vi., pp. 125 et seq.). What, in interstellar space, the precise curve described by my finger nail was, especially if to rotation, revolution, and the approach to Hercules, we add nutation, tidal drag, and the precession of the equinoxes, to say nothing of earth tremours, I should much like to know.
[42] All my figures are, of course, rough in the extreme; and I give Professor Campbell the benefit of about fifty miles a minute because he says approximately.
[43] "The Pageant of Summer."
[44] "The Pleasures of Life," Part II., chapter viii.
[45] "Journal, Lettres, et Poemes," p. 17. Paris, 1880.
[46] "Das Schöne ist ein Urphänomen, das zwar nie selber zur Erscheinung kommt."—"Dichtung und Wahrheit."
[47] "Hippolytus."
[48] "Prometheus Unbound."
[49] "Towards Democracy." Third Edition, pp. 149, 151. London: Fisher Unwin, 1892.
[50] Essay on Characteristics. Works (Shilling Edition), ix. 15.
[51] Essay on Diderot. Works, x. 26. The italics are Carlyle's.
[52] Additions to the "Confessions of an Opium-Eater," p. 381. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1876.
[53] "Walden," pp. 98, 99, in David Douglas's Edinburgh Edition, 1884.
[54] "Journal Intime," p. 45. London: The Macmillan Co., 1890.—I avail myself of Mrs Humphry Ward's admirable translation.
[55] "Confessions," Partie I. Livre IV. Paris: Lefevre's Edition; 1819, vol. i., pp. 259, 260.
[56] Thirty-four years separated the tour of which he speaks from the date when he penned these words.
[57] The fine phrase of Mrs Humphry Ward. See her preface to her translation of Amiel's "Journal," last paragraph.
[58] Eugénie de Guérin, "Journal et Fragments," p. 181. Twenty-fourth Edition. Paris: Didier et Cie, 1879.
[59] "Modern Painters," Part VI., chapter i., paragraph 7.—Vol. v., pp. 5 and 6 of Messrs George Allen & Sons' edition.
[60] 1 John ii. 16.
[61] Exodus xxxiv. 8.
[62] "Cette immense circulation de vie qui s'opère dans l'ample sein de la nature; ... cette vie qui sourd d'une fontaine invisible et gonfle les veines de cet univers."—Maurice de Guérin, Journal, p. 22. Paris, 1880.
Transcriber's Note
The original text has been kept, except the following modifications:
Page [40]: "inchaote" has been changed to "inchoate".
Page [83]: "maestoso" has been set in italics.
Page [123]: "ennui" has been set in italics.