The Rambles of an Idler 



tate more than educate. Back to Nature and 

 start aright. There would be no going astray, 

 if we remembered her teachings. Ignorance of 

 Nature is more fatal than ignorance of man or 

 his teachings. The oak depends upon the soil 

 wherein it is rooted. We pull ourselves up by 

 the roots and, teetering hither and yon, bewail 

 our fate when a puff of wind overturns us. 



Back to Nature and sink self to its proper 

 level. There are vines that start at the root of 

 crooked trees and have endless twistings and 

 turnings to follow. That rebellion should be a 

 foremost thought seems natural from our point 

 of view, but it is not. The vine counts the ad- 

 vantage of a crooked path. The outlook is more 

 varied, the experience more complex, but the 

 open world at the tree- top is reached at last. 

 Success that comes too early rests on weak 

 shoulders. They bend early and age is decrepit 

 in advance of its years. 



Disaster and despair, our common fate and 

 greatest weakness, are commonly associated in 

 the mind, but not logically. No road is so bar- 

 ren that we learn nothing as we pass along. 

 When we turn back, the facts we have gathered 

 better fit us for the proper path. Our spent 



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