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.