122 IValks in New England 



tossing woods in a summer breeze, only to feel the 

 life of the air as it passes, is to be filled with a 

 sacred possession of endless power and grace. So 

 moved the Spirit upon the face of the waters when 

 the firmament was formed above the fogs of the 

 inchoate earth ; so moved that Spirit when the 

 angel was set at the gates of Paradise to forbid 

 forever the access of the sons of Adam. But now 

 we do not care for any Paradise where life was 

 not conditioned by work, we have a higher 

 world, in which work is the requisite of rest and 

 reward. Let us be thankful that this is so, and 

 that never more may sluggards claim what they 

 have not rightly earned. 



For what can all the glory of the earth mean 

 to those who have done nothing to justify even 

 their existence among sentient living things ? 

 Nothing is more true than the dictum of the old 

 Scripture : &quot; He that will not work, neither shall 

 he eat.&quot; And this is not meant for physical food 

 alone ; but as well for spiritual food, which can 

 not be gained by spiritual indolence, that waits to 

 be fed. Those who desert duty and court pleas 

 ure forfeit all that pertains to the soul, for that 

 requires vast nourishment, which must come from 

 the roots of practical human life, through which 

 the spirit s atmosphere is generated. And it is in 

 the free realm of air, in the wide fields, on the bare 



