WITH BUSKIN. 27 



but how could he ever find a phrase with 

 which to picture a gulf -cap, as I see it yonder 

 in the far south-west, suspended between sea 

 and sky? The fact is that here on the gulf 

 coast I find some of the most delightful 

 weather and many of the most charming bits 

 of scenery I have ever enjoyed. One could 

 almost afford to have a sharp attack of in- 

 flammatory rheumatism in order to get sent 

 down here (for a inonth or two of convales- 

 cence) where one may lie on a log like an alli- 

 gator and listen to the wind and the sea and 

 the roaring jpines, while an obliging friend 

 sits buzzing and humming over a volume of 

 Ruskin like a bee over a flower. Few books 

 will bear reading in the open air, in the full, 

 strong light of nature. Even Euskin would 

 suffer under the test. 



How apparent becomes the utter isolation 

 of a mind like Ruskin's when one gets thor- 

 oughly apart with it and at a great distance 

 from the clashing activities of worldly life! 

 Emerson, Carlyle, and Ruskin— three lonely 

 spirits talking to mankind in the language of 

 seers and prophets, and all without much re- 

 sult, so far as effecting their purposes is con- 

 cerned. This is good mind-food, all this bril- 

 liant literature, suggestive, thought-provok- 

 ing, soul-delighting; but the old world and 

 the new world heed not its philosophy, flinch 

 not under its goads, adopt not one suggestion 

 it offers. A few read and are strangely af- 

 fected; they feel a fertilizing element flung 

 into their minds, and they wonder why all 

 the world is not down at Carlyle's, or Emer- 

 son's, or Ruskin's feet; and yet even these 

 few do not go much farther than mere recep- 

 tivity impels. The activities of life are, in- 

 deed, little influenced by the great abstract 



