Nature s Independence Day 1 1 7 



Nature s Independence Day 



THE day was as it should be intense. 

 Patriotic ardour had an unequal match 

 with the solar, and the spots on the 

 horoscope of the country were less conspicuous 

 than those on the face of the sun. Why should 

 we be asked to worry over petty villainies and 

 wrongs, within so small and transitory a sphere of 

 days, when a storm 50,000 miles across, larger 

 than two earths stretched out flat the longest way 

 round, is careering over the vast orb that makes 

 our life and our country s possible ? We are but 

 a speck upon a little ball, in one of the least among 

 myriads of universes, and why fret on a day that 

 in itself forbids such a temper, and would have us 

 indolent and content? As the Swan of Usk 

 wrote to his friend : 



&quot; Why should we 

 Vex at the land s ridiculous miserie ? &quot; 



Let us go rest and breathe slow, and dream, 

 where trees bend over shady waters that cool the 



