Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-03-11
The Unnatural
Naturalist

TT GIVES us a great deal of pleasure to
| announce. officially, that spring has
arrived
| Our statement is not based on any irrcle-
want data as TO cquinoXcs or bluebirds or
| hock-becr signs, but is derived from the
deepest authority we know anything about.
our subconscouS self. We remember that
| some philosopher, perhaps IT was Professor
James, suggested that individuals are simply
peaks of self-consciousness rising out of the
| vast ocean Of collective human Mind in which
We all swim. and are, at bottom, one. When
ever We have to decide any important matter,
| such as when 70 get our hair cut and whether
| to pay n bill or not. and whether to call for
| the check or let the other fellow do so, we
don't attempt to harass our conscious voi-
| tion with these decisions, We rely our
subconscious and instructive person, and fer
| better or worse we have TO trust TO it's right
eousness and good sense. We just find our
| self doing something and We carry and
! hope it is for the best
From this deep abyss of %ubconsciousncss
we learn that It is spring, The r7ottled
| goosebone of the Allentown prophet is no
| more meteOroogically accurate than our
subconscence And this is how it works.
| nNCE n year, about the approach of the
| Overnal equinox or the seedsman's Gala
| logue. we wake up at o'clock in the morn
| ing. This is an immediate warning and ap-
| prisemert that something is adrift. Three
| hundred and siXty-four days in the year
| wake, placidy enough, at seventeen, ten
| minutes after the alarm clock has tangled.
| But on this particular day, whether it be
| the end of February or the middle OF March,
| We wake with the old recognizable nostalgia.
| 1t is the last polyp or vestge of our 'anthro-
| pomorphc and primal SELF trailing its pa
| thetic little wisp of glory for the one day of
| the whole calendar. All the rest of the year
| We are the poddng percheron of commerce,
/ patiently tugging vain but nnt
| morning there wambles back, for the nonce
| the pang Of Eden. We wake at 6 O'Clock; II
| is n blue and golden morning and We feel
| 1t imperative to get outdoors as quickly as
| possible. Not for an instant do we feel the
| customary respectable and sanctioned desire
| to kiss the sheets yet an hour or SO. The
| trapsing, troloping humor of spring is in
| our veins We feel thar we must be about
telling an aurochs or narwhal for break
| fast. We leap into our clothes and hurry
downstairs and out of the front door and
skirmish round the house to see and smell
and feel
| TT is spring. u is unmistakably spring
i because the pewit bushes are budding and
| on yonder aspen can hear a forsythia
| bursting into song. 1t is spring when the
feet OF the foorwalker pain him and smolx-
| ing-car windows have to be pred open with
chsels We skip lightheartedly round the
| house to see IL those bobolnk bulbs we
| piatteu SioNlHs signs Yet and dis
| cover the whisk brush that fell out of the
window last November. And then the news
| boy comes along the street and sees us
prancing about and We feel sheepish and
ashamed and hurry indoors again.
There may still be billiards and fro,er
plumblngs and tumbles on icy payements
but when that morning of annunciation has
come to us we know that winter is truly
dead, even though his ghost may walk and
gibber once or twice The sweet urge Of
ha
oceanic depths OF our subconsciousness and
| Wordsworth we feel that we are wiser thar
we know. perhaps we have misquoted that,
| but let 1t stand)
nNHERE are other troubles that sprins
i brings US, We are pitfully ashamed Of
| our Ignorance of nature. and though we trv
to hide 1t we keep getting tripped up. About
this time of year inquisitive persons are
always asking us. Have you heard any song
sparrows YETI" or Are there any robins
out your wayT or when do the laburnums
begin to nest out In Marathon" Now we
really can't tell these people our true feeling,
which is that we do not believe in peeking
in on the privacy of the laburnums or any
other songsters, II seems TO us really inn.
modest TO keep on spying on the birds IN
that way. And for the bushes and trees
what We want to know Is, How does one
ever get to know them? How do you And
out which Is an alder and what is an elm
or 4 narcissus and hyacinth, does any one
| really know them apart7 We think it,S ~
= bluG. And 1onqulls There was nest 81
4 ~