646 VIS MEDICATRIX NATURAE 



wonder than the blind man feels who is gradually restored 

 to perfect sight." 



Putting what we have said in a different way, we may 

 speak of the three voices of Nature, meaning the impulses 

 that come from the threefold- -practical, emotional, and intel- 

 lectual relation between Man and Nature. These are the 

 wordless voices referred to in the XlXth Psalm: " Day unto 

 day is welling forth speech, and night unto night is breathing 

 out knowledge ; there is no speech, and there are no words ; 

 their voice has no audible sound ; yet it resonates over all the 

 earth." The three voices are: Endeavour, Enjoy, Enquire. 

 The first voice is Endeavour. What would our hereditary 

 character be without Nature's millennial sifting of the in- 

 surgent, the adventurous, the controlled, the far-sighted, 

 the strenuous ? And the discipline is still binding. There 

 is no doubt as to Nature's condemnation of the unlit lamp 

 and the ungirt loin. One of the obvious lessons of evolu- 

 tion is the danger of having things made too easy ! 



The second voice is Enjoy. As we come to know Nature, 

 we find that everything is wonderful. " You of any well 

 that springs may unfold the heaven of things." " It is 

 enough if through Thy grace I've found naught common 

 on Thy Earth. Take not that vision from my ken." As we 

 begin to feel more at home our wonder grows into what may 

 almost be called affection. This is true of those who have what 

 Meredith called " love exceeding a simple love of the things 

 that glide in grasses and rubble of woody wreck ". Science 

 never destroys wonder or delight, but only shifts it higher 

 or deeper. As Coleridge said, " All knowledge begins and 

 ends with wonder, but the first wonder is the child of ignor- 

 ance, while the second is the parent of adoration." We need 

 to listen to this second voice which says Wonder, Enjoy, 



