ESOTERIC PER1PATETICISM. 193 



treating to the woods or the fields, we find it 

 impossible to leave the wearisome world 

 yes, and our more wearisome selves, also 

 behind us. As a rule, this result is not the 

 better attained by quickening the gait. We 

 may allow for exceptions, of course, cases 

 in which a counter-excitement may perad- 

 venture be of use ; but most often it is 

 better to seek quietness of heart at a quiet 

 pace ; to steal away from our persecutors, 

 rather than to invite pursuit by too evident 

 a purpose of escape. The lazy motion is of 

 itself a kind of spiritual sedative. As we 

 proceed, gazing idly at the sky, or with our 

 attention caught by some wayside flower or 

 passing bird, the mind grows placid, and, 

 like smooth water, receives into itself the 

 image of heaven. What a benediction of 

 repose falls upon us sometimes from an old 

 tree, as we pass under it ! So self -poised it 

 seems ; so alive, and yet so still ! It was 

 planted here before we were born. It will 

 be green and flourishing long after we are 

 dead. In it we may behold a perfect illus- 

 tration of the dignity and peace of a life 

 undeviatingly obedient to law, the law of 

 its own being; never in haste, never at a 



