The times., 1898-07-03
Nature Studies.

ters," and Text Book Of the History of
Painting" The book is unusual, first, in
its point OF view. and second, in the pc
culiar skill with which the subject Of na-
ture is handled from that point of view.
The portrait Of Prof. Van Dyke, which
forms the frontispiece of the book, shows
the face OF an intellectual. rather dreamy
and idealistic man, with plenty of force in
his own particular field. The book bears
out this impression.
We have here simply a series Of short
essays on nature, without regard to man
as a factor in its beauty, and without
personification. This is a thing decidedly
rare, almost unparalleled in literature
Most lovers Of nature have the feeling
OF kinship with natural objects, and al
most insensIbly endow skies, waters, and
mountains with human feelings, or at
least consciousness.
Sidney Lanier, who possessed much the
same constituencies and exquisite power Of
word painting as Prof. Van Dyke, had
stin in strong degree the idea Of per-
Fonifcation. He speaks of the cunning
green leaves, little mastersi" of their ''lu-
minous dark" Of My lord SUM- and
Of bright Ariel clouds" towering over
the bumped and fishy sea, the Caliban
sea" Thoreau made his nature essays
a means Of expression of his own extraor-
0inary personality; Emerson regarded
earth and air as a sort of IimitleSs store
house from which mankind was intended
10 draw life and health. Prof Van Dyke.
however, takes a point Of view which, so
far as literature is concerned. is all his
own. Many painters have seen nature
from this vantage-ground, but this book
IS practically the first study of the sort
which has been put into words. The tone
Of the essays is, throughout, impersonal
almost cold: the authors evident enthu-
siasm for his subject is all that warns
them into life. Light, form and color are
10 him intensely beautiful. and infinitely
interesting in themselves. aside from any
association with humanity.
Here is a man who, If put down on a
wholly Uninhabited island. in the midst
OF the ocean, would find an occupation
merely in watching the changes of sea
and sky; the development Of the minutest
forms Of life, and this not from scien-
tihc but purely artistic interest. There
IS little Of the scientist in Prof. Van
Dykes writing. Several times in these
pages he frankly admits that he does not
know the name Of some flower which he
has noticed as contributing to the color
ing OF some landscape; and that. too.
when any botanist would probably have
been able TO give him the name in five
minutes There is something rather fine
in this. He is as purely oblivious 10 the
scientific characteristics Of the plant as
the botanist has for ages been to the
artistic beauty Of its blossom.
AT the same time, IN directions where
81 pleases him 10 have knowledge, he IS
not found wanting. He can give the
al 10 oF
the geological history Of a picturesque
rock He has not only noted the varia-
tiOns Of color IN the atmosphere in half
a dozen quarters Of the globe, but he can
tel you why the color varies. He knows
the charm Of a day in the woods. and
he knows the psychological reason Of that
charm. The book as a whole, is the
oldest possible mixture OF intense ideali-
ty and practical knowledge. Only the
exquisite fitness Of the language saves
It here and there from dryness. Prof
Van Dyke could write a physical geogra-
ply or a qualitative analysis treatise In
chemistry and make either one pictur-
esoue. To the botanist, the geologist
the historian, he may seem a dreamer
but he IS a singularly Wide-aWake dream
er IN certain directions. He might easily
say with Emerson,
Chide me not laborious band,
Gt1 For the idle flowers ] brought;
Ei Every 2ster in my hand
tfsf Comes home laden with thought.
IN his case. however, it does not need
even so poetic a thing as a wild aster to
evoke the thought A bit of shale or a
''naclIerel shoar' Of cloud will do as well
There is almost nothing in American lit
erature which possesses this impersonal
yet sympathetic, atmosphere except the
poems Of a young Western girl, EValeen
ture for its own sake" though her work
IS more intuitive and less scholarly than
this volume Of essays. This element is
something new in our literature. not over
common in any literature. Nature in
the old world is so saturated with his
tory and legend that IL is hard 10 escape
mans footprints. Ii may be that in the
fresh, untrodden ways Of America this
style Of writing will develop itself into
q distinct type.
A fair idea Of this work can be gained
only by a certain amount of quotation
II is easy TO quote at random since the
excellence Of the description is maintain
ed throughout, and every chapter, almost
every page, has its delightful passage to
e lover Of nature. In speaking of the
beauty Of the sea, for example, he gives
US this:
The sky in it's internnable height and the sc:
IN ats vast depth blue by virtue OF superim
posed layers or strata Of transparent substances
IL Is not until stratum has been heaped upoT
Etrstum in countless numbers that the color lie
gins to show. We into them as into opeT
space, the quality Of the color breaks upon u:
slowly and its greatest tenderness is revealed 4
Us only in its profoundest depths.
But beautiful as the local colors Of sea-watel
may be, they are nearly sQualed by the color'
that may be reflected from the surface. Lighi
Wlll penetrate water as it does glass, coloring i
IS the rays are broken and rejected by the float
ing particles; but, like glass, water will also re
feet color and light from its face with won
derful clearness. In this respect the ocean is no
very different from the mountain lake and tn,
roadside pool The whole dark sweep Of the sc;
bTightens under the dawn and flames under tht
twilight, and every heaving wave is CONVEX
mirror.
One OF the articles in the creed of Prof
Van Dyke. which would not be a bad
thing for other Americans TO adopt, is
that there are just as beautiful color
effects in America as anywhere in Europe
and he has a number of lucid arguments
10 prove this. He also points out that
very common things have their beauty
and that the pearl-gray iridescence of a
fog may be 10 the instructed eye as
charming as the most gorgeous sunset
The greater part OF the book is devoted
10 different forms Of light, cloud, and re-
Election, and TO the colors and forms OF
water-waves. Mountains, also, come in
for an interesting chapter, and other
pages are given to trees. to flowers, fern,
moses and bracken, and TO marshes,
Nothing is commonplace and nothing un-
interesting TO this lover of nature and #
may safely be said that most people who
read his book with attention and consid-
Grafton viii find themselves, when next
they walk abroad, possessed of a second
pair of eyes
(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons
Washington: All booksellers.)