ALONG THE ROAD II. 19 



veal themselves to the housewife, the same sounds, 

 mellow with the resonance of uncounted centuries, 

 greet the ears of the children as in the most primi 

 tive ages. 



The highway itself stands as a memorial of the 

 most venerable customs and the most ancient 

 races. As I lift my eyes from its beaten road-bed, 

 and look out upon it through the imagination, it 

 escapes all later boundaries and runs back through 

 history to the very dawn of civilization ; it marks 

 the earliest contact of men with a world which was 

 wrapped in mystery. The hour that saw a second 

 home built by human hands heard the first footfall 

 on the first highway. That narrow foot-path led 

 to civilization, and has broadened into the highway 

 because human fellowships and needs have multi 

 plied and directed the countless feet that have 

 beaten it into permanency. Every new highway 

 has been a new bond between Nature and men, a 

 new evidence of that indissoluble fellowship into 

 which they are forever united. 



I have sometimes tried to recall in imagination 

 the world of Nature before a human voice had 

 broken the silence or a human foot left its impress 

 on the soil ; but when I remember that what I see 

 in this sweep of force and beauty is largely what I 

 myself put into the vision, that Nature without the 

 human ear is soundless, and without the human 

 eye colorless, I understand that what lies spread 

 before me never was until a human soul confronted 



