76 THE ARCTURUS ADVENTURE 



tion which develops that realization of the wonder 

 and the beauty of the thing close at hand. It is so 

 easy to miss this almost conscious appraisement, 

 and after the trip or performance or experience is 

 past, we long for just one moment of the ac- 

 tuality, so that this or that could be seen again 

 and remembered more clearly. Before I started 

 on my trip around the world in my search for 

 wild pheasants, someone gave me one of the 

 most valuable hints I have ever had. It seems 

 a foolish little game when I come to write 

 it down, but it is based on a very sound reali- 

 zation of a great human weakness — the contempt 

 bred by myopic familiarity, the absolute neces- 

 sity for even an artificial perspective. It consists 

 merely in shutting your eyes when you are in the 

 midst of a great moment, or close to some marvel 

 of time or space, and convincing yourself that you 

 are at home again with the experience over and 

 past; and what would you wish most to have ex- 

 amined or done if you could turn time and space 

 back again. A hundred questions rush into this 

 induced mental vacuum — what were the color and 

 shape of the wild blossoms upon which that pheas- 

 ant fed? What was the sound of the anti-aircraft 

 shells? At what speed did the lava flow? etc. 



And so, as I said, I swung myself lightly down 

 from the ladder and stood on the bottom. I gazed 

 out with interest on the rocks and fish about me, 

 but felt a vague feeling of disappointment. I was 

 breathing so easily; the water outside might have 

 been correctly heated air as far as any bodily sensa- 



