n8 



Till-. (H'II)K TO NAT I 'RE 



"THE LITTLE CORNER OF A GARDEN MAY CONTAIN MORE WISDOM THAN A THOUSAND 

 HOOKS AND MORE INCENTIVE TO PIETY THAN A THOUSAND SERMONS." 



tree" that the worshippers of Baal and 

 Ashtaroth raid their devotions. In 

 the forests of India and Yucatan are 

 the ruins of prehistoric shrines; 

 throughout Celtic Europe the Druids 

 conducted their mysterious rites in the 

 shadow of the oak be-candled with the 

 sacred mistletoe ; and many a Chris- 

 tian church and abbey arose on a 

 mountain peak or above a cavern which 

 for unnumbered centuries had been 

 consecrated to the adoration of the old 

 gods of our first historic progenitors. 

 Thus it was at Mont St. Michel on 

 the coast of Brittany; which oilgrims 

 were wont to visit on their way to the 

 Holy Land, carrying with them as a 

 souvenir of the spot a scallo )-shell 

 from the neighboring sands, ami so it 

 came about that the scallop-shell be- 

 came for a long time in life and per- 

 petually in the heraldic art the badge 

 and symbol of the palmer. 



In Farther Asia the most beautiful 

 scenes have become the setting for a 

 temple of Gautama, of Amitabha or of 

 Kwan-yon ; the eyes of the children of 

 the Rising Sun turn lovingly to the 

 holy mountain Fujiyama — the very 



name of which means Buddha-mpnas- 

 tery-mountain ; and at the edge of the 

 chiasm into which sinks the mighty 

 cataract of Victoria Nyanza the Afric 

 tribesmen used to gather from half a 

 continent to adore the God towards 

 Whose high throne the Seven Columns 

 of rainbow-tinted mist ascended night 

 and day before their awe-struck eyes 

 like the smoke of incense from Titanic 

 censers. In the most picturesque i arts 

 of Europe the silent hymns of Nature 

 are punctuated with wayside shrines 

 and hill-top calvaries; and across con- 

 tinents and seas the Christ of Mont- 

 martre and the Christ of the Andes 

 alike proclaim the truth that only the 

 sublimest of God's works are worthy 

 to be the pedestals of the most pro- 

 digious symbols of human aspiration. 

 So inseparable is Nature from re- 

 ligion that if she were All she would 

 herself rightly and inevitably be a relig- 

 ion and her culminating mysteries 

 would become again, as they have 

 always been among races who knew 

 of nothing beyond the ken of the 

 senses, the objects of enraptured ador- 

 ation. But the religious progress of" 



