shadow. Face to face through all his his- 

 tory man has stood with Nature, and to 

 each generation she has opened some new 

 page of her inexhaustible story. Begin- 

 ning in the hardest toil for the most ma- 

 terial rewards, this fellowship has steadily 

 added one province of knowledge and in- 

 timacy after another, until it has become 

 inclusive of the most delicate and hidden 

 recesses of character as well as those which 

 are obvious and primary. In response to 

 spirits which have continually come into a 

 closer contact with her life, Nature has added 

 to her gifts of food and wine, poetry and 

 art, far-reaching sciences, occult wisdoms 

 and skills; she has invited the greatest to 

 become her ministers, and has rewarded 

 their unselfish service by sharing with them 

 the mighty forces that sleep and awake 

 at her bidding ; one after another the poets 

 of truest gift have forsaken the beaten 

 paths of cities and men, and found along 

 her untrodden ways the vision that never 

 fades ; her voice, now that men begin to 

 understand it again as their forefathers 

 40 



