196 ESOTERIC PER1PATETICISM. 



caution now suggested. One may become 

 so zealous a botanist as almost to cease to 

 be a man. The shifting panorama of the 

 heavens and the earth no longer appeals to 

 him. He is now a specialist, and go where 

 he will, he sees nothing but specimens. Or 

 he may give himself up to ornithology, till 

 eye and ear grow so abnormally sensitive 

 that not a bird can move or twitter but he 

 is instantly aware of it. He must attend, 

 whether he will or no. So long as this 

 servitude lasts, it is idle to go afield in 

 pursuit of joys " high and aloof," such as 

 formerly awaited him in lonesome places. 

 Better betake himself to city streets or a 

 darkened room. For myself, I thankfully 

 bear testimony that when I have been thus 

 under the tyranny of my own senses I have 

 found no more certain means of temporary 

 deliverance than to walk in the early even- 

 ing. Indeed, I have been ready, many a 

 time, to exclaim with Wordsworth, 

 " Hail, Twilight, sovereign of one peaceful hour ! " 



Then the eye has no temptation to busy 

 itself with petty details ; " day's mutable 

 distinctions " are removed from sight, and 

 the mind is left undistracted to rise, if it 



