The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-07-31

| ~ " S1SAS W Jul yOuIU. LII
means more oxygen in the lungs of our
young folks, fewer round shoulders and
hollow chests and weak limbs. IT
means less dyspepsia and consumption.
less nervous prostration and anemia.
and more ability to carry the burden
and strain of life in the last two de-
cades of the nineteenth century.
But midsummer has higher mission
to us than this opportunity for physical
renovation. 1t is not getting C near to
nature" to win tennis match, or to
spend a summer evening on ones door
step. There is an opportunity in the
summer time which addresses higher
part of us than this need of the body.
Nature appeals to the soul. She has
something for mans spiritual self far
more precious even than the vigor and
the strength she bestows on his body.
And so merely being in the open air, or
in the vicinity of open fields, is not
coming into that vital intercourse with
nature to which the midsummer invites
us. And indeed / fear that the people
who love nature are fewer than we sup
pose. There are many who enjoy ride
in the park and grow enthusiastic over
the smooth lawns and the trim flower
beds, who would not know what to do
with themselves if forced to spend a
day in the company of pine woods, or
to gossip with the waves on some lone
ly sea beach, There are eyes which
sparkle over the cultivated verdure Of
city gardens which would sweep with
out CLEAN of pleasure across the tan
gled corner of some wayside pasture,
where wild-fowers and vines grow and
Irvine together in their careless grace.
But they only get a true and intimate
knowledge of nature who go close to
her, scan her face with sympathy for all
her moods, and understand her wild
and rugged phases as well as her
smooth ways and tame delights when
she submits to cultivation. But when
once the sensibilities are awakened
which open the mind to a receptivity
toward natures influences, life becomes
enriched by whole category OF expe-
riences which refresh, instruct and in
spire. IL man has learned to love
nature, he will find a sense of compan-
ionship in every cloud, in every mead
ow, in every wild-fower, in every wav-
ing weed that grows.
ITO him who in the love of nature seeks COM
munion with her visible forms,
She speaks varied language,
says our Bryant. "Give me health and
day" says Emerson, land will make
the pomp of emperors ridiculous. The
dawn is my Assyria the sunset and
moonrise my Paphos and unimaginable
realms of poesie. Broad noon shall be
my England of the senses and the
understanding and the night shall be
my Germany of mystic philosophy and
dreams" Real nature-love makes a
man feel that he has an understanding,
friendship, with every cloud that floats
and every bird that sings. He has
| riches which time does not touch nor
change diminish. A sunset is as good
to-day as it was twenty years ago.
And bunch of viOlets or cluster of
wild grasses and daisies has as fresh
fascination to TIE gray beard as it has
to the youth. AS long as one is able to
go and dwell with nature at all, there
will be thrill of pleasure at every turn
in the winding wood road, at every new
headland that hides some unexplored
stretch Of the coast. And when at last
old age has weakened the limbs till
they can no longer scale the hill or cross
the plain, the dim eye may still be lift
ed to where the shadows deepen on the
mountain, or run along the wheat, or
make dissolving pictures on the lake,
and be the ministers of pure joy from
the heart of nature to the soul now near
the border line of the unseen.
Let it be said, moreover, that the
ways in which one comes at this in
timacy with nature are as many as in
dividual tempers and interests. But it
is happy element in any life, if the
man or woman has some pursuit or
some accomplishment which may lie
entirely one side from life's business
and material interests. And 1 want to
say one word in encouragement of those
studies and diversions which, besides
taking mems bodies out of doors, take
their minds there too. Science and the
arts offer many an engaging path to
natures most secret retreats. Did you
ever see anybody who seemed to be on
better terms with nature than your
friend the botanist, who comes in from
an afternoon in the fields, where he has
been prying into odd corners, plucking
up plain looking weeds and uncovering
rare blossoms, bringing his box full Of
plants and flowers which he calls by
name, whose life and habits he knows,
whose rarity gives them value in his
sight more than silver and gold Did
you ever stroll with geologist across
country and mark the understanding
with which he reads meaning into
scenes which have no message for your