IN THE FOREST OF ARDEN. 149 



divergence from the ways of & world whose habits 

 and standards are continually reversed in the 

 Forest. In castle and palabe, the wealth and 

 splendor of life, everything* that gives it grace 

 and beauty to the eye, are treasured within massive 

 walls and protected from the common gaze and 

 touch. Every great park, with its reaches of 

 inviting sward and its groups of noble trees, seems 

 to say to those who pass along the highway : &quot; We 

 are too rare for your using.&quot; Every stately 

 palace, with its wonderful paintings and hangings, 

 its sculpture and furnishings, locks its massive 

 gates against the great world without, as if that 

 which it guards were too precious for common 

 eyes. In Arden no one dreams of fencing off a 

 lovely bit of open ;meadow or a cluster of great 

 trees ; private ownership is unknown in the Forest. 

 Those who dwell there are tenants in common of a 

 grander estate than was ever conquered by sword, 

 purchased by gold, or bequeathed by the laws of 

 descent. There are homes for privacy, for the 

 sanctities of love and friendship ; but the wealth 

 of life is common to all. Instead of elegant houses, 

 and a meager, inferior public life, as in the great 

 cities of the world, there are modest homes and a 

 noble common life. If the houses in our cities 

 were simple and home-like in their appointments, 

 and all their treasures of art and beauty were 

 lodged in noble structures, open to every citizen, 

 the world would know something of the habits of 



