Evening star., 1932-11-29
THIS AND THAT
By CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

Gray days have their place in the
scheme Of things. They are as neces-
| sary as sunshiny ones, in a way, and
happy Is he who finds them so.
| Perhaps the best feat performed by
| one of replenishing the earth with
moisture, is to put new aspect on
familiar landscapes.
Mankind needs to see old things as
new things.
Especially is this a necessity for the
city dweller, who daily goes around
amid essentially fixed buildings, streets
and parks
Even when drastic changes are being
made. such as Washington knows south
Of Pennsylvania avenue at the present
time. there remains plenty of the un-
changed.
Nothing quite puts such a new aspect
on thoroughfares as a rainy day, espe-
cially if a touch of fog is added for
good measure
Fog has sort Of magnifying effect,
causing even the least observant way
farer to note something startling al
most, IN the appearance of familiar
things.
Instead Of being clearly cut against
the sky. houses down the street do
what mankind has agreed to call
loom" when fog touches their bricks
and stones with its vapors.
Mlsts, after ALL are only accentua-
tlons OF the ordinary grayness of a
rainy day, and it Is this feature which
interests the observant person, especial
ly the lover of Nature who finds enjoy
ment in all the appearances Of the uni
versal mother
The wc.d mature" is a strange one.
It comes from the Latin "natura. /"
in turn from "natus," born.
The primary meaning Of nature" IS
birth, origin; the secondary, that which
IS the source or essence of life. the
creative force; third, that which is pro-
duced by natural forces, the existing
system OF things in time and space,
creation, the universe.
This condensed summary brings out
rather clearly that Nature, in essence,
means life, and living things, although
all the manifestations of "the existing
system of things" are necessarily in
cluded
Discoveries of science in the past
hundred years tend to show the inter-
relation of all things, the kinship being
some sort of electrical arrangement, as
yet not understood as indeed, no form
OF electricity is understood.
Wordsworth said that If he could
understand the flower he held in his
hand he would understand what God
and man is" Men of today whether
poets or scientists, might make some
thing OF the same claim in relation to
electricity.
The gray day. overcast or rainy, is
one Of the primitive appearances of
Nature with capital IN"
Perhaps the great Napoleon so loved
that capital. and adopted 1t as his par
ucular own, because somehow he felt
that it stood for both him and Nature,
OF which he seemed to be such a vital
part.
Every one knows certain men who
seem to typify Nature better than the
average run of mankind Nor do these
men necessarily act crudely, or I'm the
raw" although often enough they do.
Somehow they seem to incorporate
into their words, their actions, and
especially their thoughts, something of
most tirnid human being feels Is rep
resentative Of the vsss existing sys-
tenn"
X
The gray day is even more natural
than the bright one, for in Nature there
must have been, in the beginning, only
gloom.
Sunshine must have been an after
thought. as it were, one of the divine
strokes of genius which are known to
human authors, and therefore why not
to the Author Of all? Sometimes, in