Impressions 



our horizon still further if we did not so per- 

 sistently simply take a walk, but instead boldly 

 plunge into the fields, ready to greet whatsoever 

 we meet in the spirit of fellowship. Man is not 

 so infinitely high and wild life so infinitely low 

 that the chasm cannot be bridged. Deny ratio- 

 cinative power to the nimble hawk and hold that 

 the frightened snow-birds are impelled only 

 by blind instincts : what matters it 1 They are 

 companionable if we so will it, and that of itself 

 makes glorious an Alpine morning. We think 

 only of the cold when we are too lazy to think 

 of anything else. Visions of the fireside will 

 cease to pursue when we have the faith of the 

 birds and keep warm after their fashion, ac- 

 cepting the conditions as we find them and, 

 ceasing to be refined equatorial savages, be- 

 come sensible Eskimos. 



No laboratory or museum is so complete a 

 microcosm that the macrocosm can be safely 

 ignored. The specialist amid his glass' jars 

 may sneer at the unmethodical rambler, but 

 whose is the wider horizon? Carcasses may 

 keep intact in formaline or alcohol, and learned 

 labels smack of profound knowledge, but where 

 is that subtle something which came into being 



43 



