30 Outlook to Nature 



the silence is the greatest of teachers. Walt 

 Whitman expresses this well * 



" When I heard the learn' d astronomer, 



When the proofs, the figures, were ranged 

 hi columns before me, 



When I was shown the charts and diagrams, 

 to add, divide, and measure them, 



When I sitting heard the astronomer where 



he lectured with much applause in the lecture- 

 room, 



How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, 



Till rising and gliding out I wander' d 

 off by myself, 



In the mystical moist night-air, and 

 from time to time 



Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars." 



THE WAYS OF APPROACH TO NATURE 



It will be gleaned from what has been 

 said that we are to consider literature, includ- 

 ing poetry, to be one of the means of the 

 enjoyment of nature. It is fundamentally im- 

 portant, however, that we regard literature only 

 as a means : it is not nature. 



One can never be fully appreciative of this 

 natural world unless he has technical knowl- 



