The New York herald., 1922-03-26


to imply that it will put you to sleep;
rather 1t invites to such a relaxing
of tension as rests you, while still
inviting to new thoughts and fresher
hopes.
Mr.. Vince is q walker, by choice:
so many of his pieces are concerned
with roads, and often roads for
roads sake. In a yersified apos-
trophe he turns away from the
places "where the great adventures
are" and reveals his impulse:
We go by the ploughed and tranquil
field.
BY the woods where no fears hide.
The forges are silent now in the weald
Where a man no more has need OF &
shield.
Or a sword upon his side.
For the sky that is high above Helicon
Is as high above Gomshall Down.
And a road is road to travel on.
or whether it start from Babylon
or out of Dorkings town.
He finds roads. in themselves, the
keys to much of human interest and
power; says he:
"Of all the things that man has
made the roads arc the greatest OF
his works of unconscious art.
Men have never made a road except
for the good reason that they wanted
very much to reach some place,
and in doing it they have always
shown themselves Indifferent to
beautiful things. They break the
hills; they ruin the streams. They
go ON their way caring for nothing
but their intent to arrive. =.
wherever the great roads pass
they bring there noble things. They
| bring memory. When the Romans
built a road for many miles along
that high and level summit which
is still called High Street they did
it only because they thought that
so they could most easily take their
legions from wIndermere to Penrith.
That road was long since over
grown by the old turf of the hills.
| but beneath the turf the road re-
mains, no longer travelling to Pen
rith but back into the years.
1.-THE second good thing that the
great roads bring is this, that they
give to all the country they cross
an emphasis and firmness to what
ever is beautiful in its shape They
make the plains more level; Chey
mark. so that the eye can see ii more
clearly, the beautiful dip and wave
of the land at the foot Of the hills,
they mako magnificent the great
curve of a hillside. Last OF
all, the great roads bring romance.
Not the eye only. but the mind
travels by them, imagining many
"All that the French roads are the
English roads are not. They wander.
They GO, so many of them, between
great, flaring, wasteful, beautiful
hedges; and the trees rise out of the
hedges, stretching magnificent arms
from that pleasant shelter in which
they live, massive and luxuriant. as
il all the richness of the earth were
only to give them stature and beauty.
Seeing these roads any for
eigler might say that indeed they.
must belong to the people who use
SO much that word which he cannot
translate "canfatable."
Besides the roads. Mr.. Vince writes
with sincere affection of all the
thousand aspects of the open coun-
try; OF warrior Trees" of "The
Thunderstan," of Shepherds Ro-
NANCE" OF "winter Woods" "The
Little Stream OF 1.-THE Spring
River and with an especial fondness
Af 1.-THE Downs" lie finds these
great uplands even frlendlier than
the "unchaneing hills" which do
change continually in storm and sun
shine and after rain.
But the Downs do not change.
There is something in their pure and
beautiful shape which is stronger
than any storms and than all the
moods of the sky. Night and tho
clouds alike rest very gently on