22 UNDER THE TREES. 



understand it again as their forefathers understood 

 it, is a voice of worship. So, from their first work 

 for food and shelter, men have steadily won from 

 Nature gifts of insight and knowledge and prophecy, 

 until now the mightiest secrets are whispered by the 

 trees to him who listens, and the winds sometimes 

 take up the burden of prophecy and sing of a 

 fellowship in which all truth shall be a common 

 possession. 



As I walk along the old highway, the deepening 

 shadows touch the familiar landscape with mystery ; 

 one landmark after another vanishes until the 

 lights in the scattered farm-houses gleam like re 

 flected constellations. A deep silence fills the 

 great heavens and broods over the wide earth; all 

 things have become dim and strange ; and yet I 

 feel no loneliness in the midst of this star-lit soli 

 tude. The heavens shining over me, and the scat 

 tered household fires declare to me that fellowship 

 of light in which Nature holds out her hand to man 

 and leads him, step by step, to the unspeakable 

 splendors of her central sun. 



