236 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



or for the nourishment and growth of 

 mind and heart a hundred years from 

 now? I feel pretty sure that the most 

 of the nature books are yet to be writ- 

 ten ; yet there are many books that 

 would help us and give us pleasure if 

 we knew just where to find them. 



I have wondered if there are many 

 who have had experiences similar to 

 my own. I think it pretty safe to 

 judge at least a few others by our- 

 selves. I have plenty of reading to do, 

 it is part of my work, and, as I chose my 

 profession this reading is a pleasure. 

 Carlyle said, "Blessed is he who has 

 found his work ; let him ask no other 

 blessedness." This is the greatest 

 thing in life, but I do ask for more. 

 I consider it not only a duty but a 

 pleasure to appreciate to the best of 

 my ability art, literature and the out- 

 door world. It is rest and refresh- 

 ment and it makes me see far more in 

 my comparatively narrow line of re- 

 search. The animals that have left 

 but their bones and teeth buried in the 

 clay beds and sand bars of past times 

 become living animals again. They 

 graze on hillsides that have melted 

 away in the long ages; they repose 

 under trees that have left not a trace 

 behind or only a few rare leaf-prints 

 in the rocks ; they wade in reedy 

 marshes, the mud of which is now 

 layers of rock ; and many strange 

 pictures come more or less distinctly 

 before me as I walk along our common 

 fields. These are the side trips, the 

 excursions into wonderland, of the 

 specialist ; but these he must keep out 

 of his scientific papers which deal with 

 what is accurately known and can be 

 re-confirmed or demonstrated. 



But there are times when the 

 ordinary books and scenes do not sat- 

 isfy. I am longing for something I 

 cannot find. We sometimes hear peo- 

 ple say, "I am hungry but I cannot 

 think of anything that I want to eat." 

 My condition is similar to theirs. 

 When I am at home I have access to 

 a large library. I often go to the card 

 catalogue and call for one or more 

 armfuls of books. There is much to 

 be learned from all of them, but per- 

 haps I have been trying to cram my 

 mind with facts for a week and the 



fact department has been working 

 overtime and is weary ; it needs rest 

 and other departments are longing for 

 exercise. The books are not just 

 what I am craving now. Perhaps the 

 hungry person has had bread, pota- 

 toes, pork-and-beans and apple dump- 

 lings until he is tired of them. It may 

 be that his digestive organs have been 

 abused, and it may be that it is only 

 the calling of his system for some ele- 

 ments which it needs. Perhaps he wants 

 something that has the wild flavor of 

 the meadows or woods. It may be 

 mushrooms or delicious morelles or 

 fresh fish from the running stream. 

 I have something of an idea what 

 I want. I may be tired of bare facts 

 or even of thinking of the perpetual 

 strife, disappointments, poverty, suf- 

 fering and grind of my own species. 

 I want something restful, full of the 

 odor of the fields and groves, the light 

 of flowing streams and placid waters, 

 the deep, solemn shadows of the for- 

 ests or the boundless freedom of the 

 prairies. I want something that will 

 freshen and brighten the world to me 

 or something that will take me far 

 away on the wings of my imagination. 

 I want sometimes to be made to see 

 the world through the eye of the artist 

 without the use of too much of what 

 seems to me his technical slang; I 

 want to see it as the broad-minded 

 naturalist sees it — not the skeletons of 

 facts alone as they appear in his 

 scientific publications ; I want to see 

 nature as she is, more than all the 

 volumes of art, science and poetry that 

 ever have been written ; for undoubt- 

 edly beyond our best productions there 

 is higher art, science and poetry when 

 we are ready for it. There are lyrics, 

 epics, dramas, marvels and mysteries, 

 and all true. I want sometimes to go 

 back and see things as they appeared 

 to our forefathers, not as they appear 

 through our modern spectacles ; I want 

 sometimes to see them as they appear 

 to the wild imagination of a Haggard 

 and sometimes I wish again, as in boy- 

 hood, to roam for a little while in the 

 midsummer night's dream of love and 

 fairyland. Do I want too much? I 

 think not. The human mind has not 

 been built by the rule and square, nor 



