INFLUENCES IN LITERATURE. 107 
elements seems most active in the brain when 
the pleasurable excitement of a rational pas- 
time is upon it. The artist is often surprised, 
while aimlessly sketching in the presence of 
Nature; at the sudden coming on of a genu- 
ine “inspiration’—a suggestion leaping out 
of some accidental touch, or out of some elu- 
sive, shadowy change in the phases of things. 
The direct study of Nature is dry, and its re- 
sults, however useful and entertaining, far from 
satisfactory from a literary or artistic stand- 
point. As one can see an object better in the 
night by not looking straight at it, so the in- 
direct view of Nature is best for the discovery 
of those inspiring morsels upon which the gods 
used to feed, and with which the poet, the 
novelist, and the painter of to-day delight to 
stimulate themselves. But the gods were hunt- 
ers and athletes, as well as lyrists and song- 
sters. They bent the bow with as much ease 
and delight as they blew in the hollow reed or 
thrummed on the stringed shell. They robbed 
the wild bees of their honey, and chased the 
deer over the hills; they followed the streams 
of Arcadia, and haunted the fountains and 
giens of both Italy and Greece. ‘The poets are 
said to be the successors of the gods. The 
gums and resins, the spices and saps, the per- 
fumes and subtle essences of Nature make their 
nectar and ambrosia. It is the presence of 
this flavor of Nature that discloses the work of 
a genuine genius. No amount of cunning arti- 
sanship can create, it can only build. Genius 
works with animate materials and essences ; 
its 
“ Conscious stones to beauty grow.” 
