90 UNDER THE TREES. 



by right of citizenship into all its privileges of un- 

 watched freedom and unclouded serenity. One is 

 not absorbed by the glory of the morning, but set 

 free by it. There are times when Nature permits 

 no rivalry ; she claims every thought and gives 

 herself to us only as we give ourselves to her. 

 She effaces us and takes complete possession of 

 our souls. Not so, however, does she usurp the 

 throne of our own personal life in those early 

 hours when the sun, the master artist, whose touch 

 has colored every leaf and tinted every flower, 

 demands her adoration. Then it is, perhaps, that 

 she turns her thoughts from all lesser companion 

 ships and, rapt in universal worship, suffers us to 

 pass and repass as unnoticed as the idlers in the 

 cathedral by those who kneel at the chancel rail. 



I confess I never find myself quite unmoved in 

 this sacred hour, announced only by the stars veil 

 ing their faces and the birds breaking the silence 

 with their tumultuous song. The universal faith 

 becomes mine also, and from the common worship 

 I am not debarred. My thought rises whither the 

 mists, parted from the unseen censers, are rising : 

 I feel within me the revival of aspirations and faiths 

 that were fast overclouding ; the stir of old hopes 

 is in my heart ; the thrill of old purposes is in my 

 soul. Once more Nature is serving me in an hour 

 of need ; serving me not by drawing me to herself, 

 but by setting me free from a world that was begin 

 ning to master and make me its slave. 



