In the Dog-Day s : 1898 145 



prime of life is burdened by these dangers. In 

 deed, the war clouds even the beauty of the earth, 

 and it is hard to escape for a moment its terrific 

 burden. 



Yet there still rise the great undisturbed hills, 

 there still rolls the majestic solemn ocean ; breezes 

 of the west sweep the mountain peaks ; the pla 

 teaus of our New England are as peaceful, sunny, 

 free and unsuggestive of human ill to their visit 

 ors as ever they were ; the promontories and 

 stretched sands of our coasts are as full of refresh 

 ing spice and salt in their airs, and as inconsiderate 

 of all human feelings. If, indeed, Nature did 

 sympathize, as sentimental poets have said in the 

 past, with human feelings, how intolerable this 

 earth would become ! It is because Nature is re 

 mote, vast, venerable, incommensurate, because 

 she was before man was, and will be after man has 

 disappeared, transient passenger over unknown 

 ages to unconceived destinies that Nature af 

 fords us comfort. In these phenomena which are 

 so familiar to us we learn as we view them in their 

 apparent dimensions the slow patience and constant 

 persistence of that inner purpose of all that is, 

 the constancy of development of the highest from 

 the lowest, the never ceasing progress of knowing 

 and doing and being, the infinite dimly conceived 

 in our ideals. 



