beaten road-bed, and look out upon it 

 through the imagination, it escapes all later 

 boundaries and runs back through history 

 to the very dawn of civilisation ; it marks 

 the earliest contact of men with a world 

 which was wrapped in mystery. The hour 

 that saw a second home built by human 

 hands heard the first footfall on the first 

 highway. That narrow footpath led to 

 civilisation, and has broadened into the 

 highway because human fellowships and 

 needs have multiplied and directed the count- 

 less feet that have beaten it into permanency. 

 Every new highway has been a new bond 

 between Nature and men, a new evidence 

 of that indissoluble fellowship into which 

 they are forever united. 



I have sometimes tried to recall in im- 

 agination the world of Nature before a 

 human voice had broken the silence or 

 a human foot left its impress on the soil ; 

 but when I remember that what I see in 

 this sweep of force and beauty is largely 

 what I myself put into the vision, that 

 Nature without the human ear is soundless, 

 37 



l;/; 



1 



T 





