Words to Live By

"The exceeding beauty of the earth, in her splendour of life, yields a new thought with every petal. The hours when the mind is absorbed by beauty are the only hours when we really live, so that the longer we can stay among these things so much the more is snatched from inevitable Time."

Richard Jefferies, --

"The Pageant of Summer"

It was about a decade ago that I first discovered in the writings of Jefferies those lines that so impressed themselves upon my mind. They are, in a way, a statement of a creed I have always lived by, for a preoccupation with the wonder and beauty of the earth has strongly influenced the course of my life.

It is a preoccupation that has yielded a rich store of memories--mental pictures of wild swans adrift on a mountain lake, repeating in their plumage the snowy white of the peaks beyond -- of salmon leaping in the frothy water of a mountain stream high in the dripping forests of the Cascades -- of the beauty of the very's song in the green dusk of a wooded valley.

In the darker hours of life I have often drawn upon such memories for deep and never-failing comfort, or I have gone out to replenish my store and find again the refreshment of the natural world. For in the words of Keats: "Some shape of beauty moves away the pall from our dark spirits."

In recent months it has been my privilege to receive many letters from people who, like myself, have been steadied and reassured by contemplating the long history of earth and sea and the deeper meanings of the world of nature. In recalling "the exceeding beauty of the

Words to Live By
"The exceeding beauty of the earth --"

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earth" these people have found release from tension and calmness to
face a world in turmoil.

There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of
the birds; in the ebb and flow of the tides, responding to sun and
moon as they have done for untold millions of years; in the repose of
the folded bud in winter, ready within its sheath for the spring.
There is something infinitely healing in these repeated refrains of
nature, the assurance that after night, dawn comes, and spring after
the winter.

In these troubled times it is a wholesome and necessary thing
for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her
beauties to know the sense of wonder and humility. There is modern
truth in the ancient wisdom of the psalmist: "I will lift up mine eyes
unto the hills, from whence cometh my strength."

-- Rachel L. Carson

Miss Rachel L. Carson
Dr. Williamsburg Drive
Silver Spring,
Maryland

Words to Live By

Richard Jefferies --

"The Pageant of Summer"

It was about a decade ago that I first discovered in the writings of Jefferies these lines that so impressed themselves upon my mind. They are, in a way, a statement of a creed I have always lived by, for a preoccupation with the wonder and beauty of the earth has strongly influenced the course of my life.

In the darker hours of life I have often drawn upon such memories for deep and never-failing comfort, or I have gone out to replenish my store and find again the refreshment of the natural world. For in the words of Keats: "Some shape of beauty moves away the pall from our dark spirit."

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-- Rachel L. Carson

September 20, 1951

Dear Mr. Nichols:

Thank you for your invitation to contribute to the "Words to Live By" page in THIS WEEK magazine. I might have been tempted to plead the perennial writers' excuse of too many earlier commitments, but for one thing. The letters I have received since the publication of my New Yorker profile of the sea and of my book, have been an amazing deminstration that men and women of all occupations and degrees of education have found release from tension, and deep satisfaction, in a presentation of the mystery and beauty of the earth. So I think I'd like to say something on that subject, basing my comments on a quotation from the English nature essayist Richard Jefferies. I don't have it at hand at the moment, but it carries out this general theme. Does this idea appeal to you?

I hope you would not need to have the piece at once, for my schedule for the next couple of weeks is a tough one, and although the piece is short that does not, as you know, mean that it would not take much time. Would about a month from now be all right?

Thank you for sending me the book, and for asking me to contribute.

THIS WEEK MAGAZINE

420 LEXINGTON AVENUE • NEW YORK 17, N.Y.

WILLIAM I. NICHOLS
EDITOR

September 10, 1951

Dear Miss Carson:

As a supplement to all the other writing you are doing these
days, I wonder if you would like to take a shot at the "Words
to Live By" page in THIS WEEK Magazine. If you live in
Washington you probably see THIS WEEK as a part of the Wash-
ington Star. But, in addition to that, it also appears in
27 other metropolitan newspapers, reaching an audience now
in excess of 10,000,000 subscribers.

The pattern for this particular page seems simple, though it
does call for a certain amount of skill, insight and inspiration.
Each week we ask some outstanding man or woman to select some
quotation or saying which has special meaning to him or to
our times, and then discuss it in terms of his own experience.

Under separate cover I am sending you a copy of the "Words to
Live By" anthology which contains a number of samples, and
gives you an idea of the range of subjects, authors and styles.
If you will glance through this, I feel sure that some idea
will suggest itself. Failing anything else, I would happily
settle for Walt Whitman's bit on "I could turn and live with
the animals, etc." I am certain that you could discuss that
with understanding and enthusiasm.

The length, as you can see from the anthology, ranges anywhere
from 100 to 350 words. The payment for an accepted piece is
$250.00.

I do hope the idea will appeal to you, and I look forward to
hearing from you.

Miss Rachel L. Carson
U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Washington 25, D. C.