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FOLLOWING BEAUTY. 



See the beauty that is in the world, and make that beauty visible, worth 

 while, and regnant in the lives of men and women. For we all need to know and 

 follow beauty as we need to know and follow truth and duty. — I-rank I . Waugh. 



B 



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THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



EDUCATION AND RECREATION 



Volume III APRIL 1911 Number 12 



A Home Especially Near to Nature 



By EDWARD F. BIGELOW, Arcadia: Sound Beach, Connecticut 



OST homes that are near to 

 nature are vignetted by na- 

 ture, as the engraver of 

 half-tone illustrations would 

 describe them. Vignetted 

 illustrations are without a 

 definite boundary line but 

 gradually merge into the surrounding 

 background of imprinted paper. So some 

 homes gradually fade away from well- 

 kept lawns, paths and garden into wilder 

 nature and so deliberately merge the 

 natural into the artificial that one must 

 walk for a long distance from such homes, 

 to get into the real wild nature. 



But I have come across a home that 

 is not only near to nature but is ac- 

 tually in contact with it ; such walks 

 and lawns as are necessary are as 



sharply defined as is the edge of an 

 unvignetted illustration in comparison 

 with its surroundings. Where one be- 

 gins and the other ends is a definite 

 line. 



I was first attracted to this home of 

 Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Gotthold of 

 Cos Cob, Connecticut, through infor- 

 mation that came to me from an 

 esteemed member of The Agassiz As- 

 sociation. Here is the home, too, in all 

 its luxuriance and prolusion, of that 

 sturdy, inspiring - , aquatic plant, the 

 Egyptian lotus. 



Said my informant as she placed one 

 of the globular blossoms on my desk, 

 "To appreciate the beauty of this 

 flower you should go at once to see 

 it in its home. This specimen, as you 

 perceive, has become somewhat faded 



Copyright 1911 by The Agassir Association, Arcadia: Sound Beach, Conn. 



