EDITOR'S TABLE. 



409 



the conditions of city life permit. 

 The works of man, the monuments 

 of civilization, in the end oppress us, 

 and we turn for refreshment and ex- 

 pansion to the wider landscapes, the 

 purer air, the freer life of regions as 

 yet comparatively untamed. This is 

 the most satisfactory view to take of 

 the matter, and happily it is one of 

 wide application. With many, how- 

 ever, there is no desire for an escape 

 from the conventionalities of life, 

 and no hunger for a reposeful con- 

 templation of the beauties and gran- 

 deurs of Nature. The excitements 

 of society may jade but do not sa- 

 tiate them, and, in their flight from 

 the city to the seaside or mountain 

 resort or to foreign lands, what they 

 seek is still the excitement of society 

 in new forms and under new condi- 

 tions. With such we have no con- 

 cern; no words of ours would be 

 likely to reach the circles in which 

 they move, nor, if they did, would 

 they be in the least likely to secure 

 a moment's attention. 



Much benefit, in our opinion, is 

 to be had from summer holidays if 

 rightly used, and it can not but be a 

 matter of regret to every sympathetic 

 man and woman that so large a body 

 of social toilers should be condemned 

 to year-long imprisonment in the 

 cities, varied only by such brief ex- 

 cursions to outlying points as the 

 present improved conditions of local 

 transit may place within their reach. 

 The maximum of benefit from a holi- 

 day comes only to one who has earned 

 it by faithful work. If, with mind 

 and heart free, such a one can al- 

 low himself a few weeks' residence 

 in some healthful spot where the 

 face of Nature is beautiful with field 

 and forest, with hillside and running 

 water, he is a man to be envied. It 

 is not inactivity of mind or body that 

 a healthy man will desire on such 

 occasions — inactivity is only for the 

 exhausted — it is new occupation for 



mind and body combined with a de- 

 lightful sense of not being in a hurry. 

 The wise man cast amid natural scen- 

 ery and conditions will seek in some 

 way to enlarge his knowledge of and 

 sympathy with Nature, not in the 

 spirit of scientific research, but rather 

 in that of loving contemplation. It 

 is a time for increasing one's famil- 

 iarity with natural objects, for learn- 

 ing a little more by direct observation 

 of leaf and tree, of bird and insect, of 

 cloud and mountain, for becoming 

 more sensitive to forms of beauty 

 and the changing harmonies of the 

 visible world, for the unsealing of the 

 eyes and the unstopping of the ears 

 and the enlargement of the heart. 

 From such intercourse with Nature, 

 coupled with wholesome modes of 

 life, there can not fail to flow much, 

 benefit, mental, moral, and physical. 

 The mind gains in elasticity and ap- 

 prehensiveness, the spirit in serenity, 

 the body in tone and vigor, and sum- 

 mer holidays so spent are likely to 

 prove the most fruitful part of the 

 whole year. 



It is the custom with some when 

 they leave the city to lay in a stock 

 of summer reading consisting chiefly 

 of the "lightest" novels. This sim- 

 ply means that they still crave ex- 

 citement, and must find it in ever- 

 renewed pictures, however lazily 

 gazed at, of the life of society — the 

 life they have (in theory) left behind 

 them. It seems to us that the books 

 to take to the country, if we take any, 

 are not new ones but old ones — those 

 we have read before, but which still 

 have their message and their charm, 

 classics whose beauties we have not 

 exhausted, and perhaps are not like- 

 ly to exhaust, which recall old asso- 

 ciations and help us to calmer and 

 broader views of life. We lay down 

 no rule for others; we merely sug- 

 gest that there is more rest for the 

 mind and spirit in going over old 

 paths than in. striking into new 



