Under the Oaks and Elsewhere 



of his wares, but the wares of an author are 

 not so separable. The author makes or un- 

 makes the facts he gathers. Freed from his at- 

 titude towards them, from his enthusiasm and 

 impressions, they remain as nuggets of gold 

 awaiting the artist's skill to give them come- 

 liness. Eliminate the personal equation and 

 Nature in a book is paralleled by Nature in a 

 museum. Specimen facts are very like speci- 

 men stuffed-birds or minerals in a case. 



Pope, in his earliest version of the Essay on 

 Man, has the line: 



A mighty maze of walks without a plan. 



That is what the earth is apt to be, but the 

 fault is our own. Walking without the art of 

 walking is much like a corpse as compared to 

 a living body. Whether mechanical or not, is 

 the question, and if not mechanical, but spiritual 

 to the extent of discerning the purpose of that 

 which is seen, then we do not walk in vain. 



To enshroud in mystery is often but to wrap 

 yourself in ignorance. Call a thing mysterious 

 and there is no incentive to investigate its true 

 character. It is the common way of excusing 



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