198 IRature StuMes in Berkshire. 



gurgle of their waters in the forest, or over the stones 

 in open meadow-reaches. I have seen, with home- 

 sick heart, how the great lakes mimic the great ocean, 

 which they can never counterfeit with success to the 

 eye trained to look upon the sea. 



But a little corner of experience has been lacking, 

 to make it all complete. It has still remained to try 

 the pleasures of a few weeks' life by the side of a lake ; 

 not a vast inland sea, nor one whose opposite shores 

 always wear the haze of distance, but a small, a 

 convenient, a manageable lake, not too large to grasp 

 and comprehend in all its aspects nor to allow the 

 feeling of intimacy and even spiritual ownership. 

 Such an opportunity has offered at length ; and it 

 becomes a sort of duty to record one's impressions. 



M. Michelet has a theory, which he presents in a 

 very interesting book, that mountains are a sort of 

 organism ; that they grow, and decay, and pass 

 through stages analogous to those of organic life. 

 Doubtless most of us have felt the power of this 

 thought when we have stood face to face with some 

 grand peak, or have watched it from day to day. But 

 whether M. Michelet, or the average observer of 

 nature, would credit a lake with any such approach 

 of personality, I hardly dare affirm. There seems, 

 however, to be a trace of this distinctive character, 

 a sort of low form of vitality, about a lake. It has 

 its moods. It impresses its individual life upon one. 

 It comes to stand for a certain sort of companionship, 

 much like that of the mountain. It is less masterful 



