IN THE FOREST OF ARDEN. 123 



were familiar with the Forest and who were able to 

 tell us much about its localities and charms. It is 

 not generally known, and it is probably wise not to 

 emphasize the fact, that the fortunate few who have 

 access to the Forest form a kind of secret frater 

 nity ; a brotherhood of the soul which is secret be 

 cause those alone who are qualified for member 

 ship by nature can understand either its language 

 or its aims. It is a very strange thing that the 

 dwellers in the Forest never make the least attempt 

 at concealment, but that, no matter how frank and 

 explicit their statements may be, nobody outside 

 the brotherhood ever understands where the Forest 

 lies or what one finds when he gets there. One 

 may write what he chooses about life in the Forest, 

 and only those whom Nature has selected and 

 trained will understand what he discloses ; to all 

 others it will be an idle tale or a fairy story for the 

 entertainment of people who have no serious busi 

 ness in hand. 



I remember well the first time I ever understood 

 that there is a Forest of Arden, and that they who 

 choose may wander through its arched aisles of 

 shade and live at their will in its deep and-beauti- 

 ful solitude ; a solitude in which nature sits like a 

 friend from whose face the veil has been with 

 drawn, and whose strange and foreign utterance 

 has been exchanged for the most familiar speech. 

 Since that memorable afternoon under the apple 

 trees I have never been far from the Forest, al- 



