8 Outlook to Nature 



The out-of-doors. 



By nature, I mean the natural out-of-doors, 

 the snow and the rain, the sky, the plants, 

 the animals, the garden and the orchard, the 

 running brooks, and every landscape that is 

 easy of access and undefiled. 



Every person desires these things in greater 

 or lesser degree : this is indicated by the rapidly 

 spreading suburban movement, by the vacation- 

 ing in the country, and by the astonishing mul- 

 tiplication of books about nature. Yet there 

 are comparatively very few persons who have 

 any intimate contact with nature, or any con- 

 crete enjoyment from it, because they lack the 

 information that enables them to understand 

 the objects and phenomena. 



The youthful life. 



Our eager civilization prematurely makes us 

 mentally old. It may be true that the span 

 of man's life is increasing, but at twenty we 

 have the knowledge and the perplexities that 

 our grandfathers had only at forty. Our chil- 

 dren may now be older when they are graduated 



