The Commonplace 7 



// is not empty resignation. 



Some persons have supposed that the " con- 

 tentment " of the nature-lover implies unvexed 

 indifference to the human affairs of the time, and 

 that therefore it makes for a kind of serene and 

 weak utopianism ; but to my mind, the outlook 

 to nature makes for just the reverse of all this. 

 If nature is the norm, then the necessity for 

 challenging and amending the abuses that ac- 

 company civilization becomes baldly apparent 

 by very contrast. The repose of the nature- 

 lover and the assiduous exertion of the man of 

 affairs are complementary, not antithetical, 

 states of mind. 



The recourse to nature affords the very means 

 of acquiring the incentive and energy for con- 

 structive work of a high order ; it enforces the 

 great truth that, in the affairs of men, con- 

 tinued progress is conditioned upon a generous 

 discontent and diligent unrest. 



The outlook to nature is the outlook to 

 optimism, for nature is our governing condi- 

 tion. Men look upward and outward to 

 nature. 



