The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1894-08-02

AO"A LILO Oh tu0 MluO 8uO
Observation-Disclosures, a
National Vice---Some Beauti-
full Thoughts Of Wordsworth
on the Silent Influence Of N ature
on the Life and Character Of q
Young Girl.
Correspondence Charlotte Observer
Some time ago read an article on
ga National Vice." The writer, with
much flow of reason, made 'gregari-
ousness' to be one Of our vices as
nation. People like to do everything
in crowd. They like to go to the
mountains and to the sea-shore in
crowd. Many 60 to the church where
they hope to find the crowd. There
is tendency for men to leave the
rural districts and congregate in the
towns. Now it may not be amiss for
us to examine for awhile what are
some of the relative advantages of
town and of country life of the rush
and crowd and of quiet, for there are
certain advantages to be derived from
each, though, perhaps, some think all
the advantages are on the side of town
life.
shall have to confne what l have
to say to some rather abstract remarks
on the relative influence of town life
and rural life on the minds and man.
ners. We are very apt to underrate
the advantages of solitude. Solitude
tends to develop the higher faculties
of the mind-the. imagination and the
reflective powers. 1t tends to promote
originality-that is, whatever tends to
differentiate the individual from the
race. Men of great genius, particu-
larly of the creative kind, seldom
arise in large cities. How very slight,
in proportion to its population, has
been London's contribution to the
roll of England's great thinkers. Most
of our great poets have either lived in
the country or spent much of their
time there. For example we have
only to think Of Shakespeare on the
Avon, Milton at Horton, the Lake
Poets, Tennyson in Surry and on the
Isle of Wight. Were not rural scenes
the inspiration of the most beautiful
imaginings of these poets Had the
Bronte sisters passed their lives in a
gossiping, tea-drinking society, they
might have produced some clever So
cial stories, but hardly the strong and
original works which came from that
remote vicarage where they lived with
their quiet old father. No really alb
stract thinking can be done except in
solitude. Carlyle no doubt did his
best thinking at Chelsea-Wordsworth
and Emerson theirs in the woods and
fields. If we 60 over the list OF great
American statesmen and thinkers, we
will find that comparatively few were
reared in cities. The influence of Ma
ture is silent and gradual, and we are
not apt to thoroughly appreciate what
a privilege it is for one to have spent
at least part of his life amid rural
scenes. proving all the pleasures
"That dell and valleys. dales and fields
Woods, or sleepy mountain fields
Wondering
by shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.'
One of the most beautiful poems, in
my opinion, that Wordsworth ever
wrote, is short poem in which he
shows the influence of Nature upon the
life of a young girl, adopted and
reared by Nature. He tells US how
her soul gathers quiet and a calm
from the influence of "mute insensate
things" how beauty of Nature s'shall
pass into her face;" how she shall
gather grace from the motions of Ma
ture how Nature, having become
''law and impulse" to her, shall act as
can overseeing power to kindle or re-
strain" At the risk of being a little
lengthy, quote these lines:
Three years she grew in sun and shower
Then Nature said "a lovelier flower
| On earth was never sOwn;
This child / to myself will take
| She shall be mine, and l will make
A Lady of mine own.
Myself will to my darling be
Both law and impulse and with me
The Girl, In rock and plain,
In earth and Heaven, in glade and bower
Shall feel an overseeing power
TO kindle or restrain.
She shall be as sportive as the fawn
That wild with glee across the lawn
Or up the mountain springs
And hers shall be the breathing balm,
And hers the silence and the calm,
OF mute insensate things.
The floating clouds their state shall lent
Nor shall she fail to see
Even in the motion Of the storm
Grace that shall mould the maiden:
| form
BY silent sympathy.
The star of midnight shall be dear
To her ; and she shall lean her ear
In many secret place
Where rivulets dance their wayward
And beauty born OF murmuring sound
Shall pass into her face.
And vital feelings Of delight
| Su8ll rear Hcf IOEm 70 SL1CcIy nclROt, --
Her virgin bosom swell
Such thoughts to Lucy I will give
While she and together live
Here in this happy dell.
Thus Nature spake-the work was done
How soon my Lucy s raee was run.
She died, and left to me
This heath, this calm and quiet scene
The memory of what has been,
And never more shall be.
I You may have to read these verses
over many times before you take i,
all Of their meaning and beauty
When you do you will appreciate SOM
of the advantages of being reared il
the country. Let me recommend It
the girls who read this column tha
they spend some of the time whicl
they pass in pent-up rooms, perchanc
mapping, in the open Air. rambling, a
! far as possible, amid rural scenes. l