216 IN BIRD LAND. 
XVI. 
THE SECRET OF APPRECIAION, 
T is an open secret, and perhaps not a very pro- 
found one. I need not prolong the reader’s 
suspense, if mayhap he should feel any, by assum- 
ing a mysterious air, but may as well frankly divulge 
the secret at once. There are times when melo- 
drama is sadly out of place — if, indeed, it is ever in 
place. What, then, is the secret of appreciation? 
It is simply being ex rapport with the object or 
truth to be appreciated. No more patent fact was 
ever declared than that which Saint Paul wrote: 
‘‘ Spiritual things are spiritually discerned.” There 
must be mental kinship, or there cannot be true 
valuation. Bring a depressed or distracted mind to 
the most exhilarating service, and you will miss its 
pith and point, and go away unrewarded. 
The same truth obtains in our commerce with 
Nature, which, it would seem, will not brook a rival in 
our hearts if we would win from her all her treasured 
sweets. ‘Give me your whole mind, your whole 
attention,” she says, “‘or I will close up every foun- 
tain of refreshment.’’ What benefit will that man 
whose mind is absorbed in the affairs of the market 
derive from a woodland stroll? What secret will 
