Chapter X 



THE EARLIEST INSIGHTS 



HE heaven which lies 

 ! about us in our infancy, 

 like every other heaven of 

 which men have dreamed, lies 

 mainly within us; it is the 

 heaven of fresh instincts, of un- 

 worn receptivity, of expanding intelligence. 

 It is a heaven of faith and wonder, as every 

 heaven must be; it is a heaven of recur- 

 ring miracle, of renewing freshness, of deep- 

 ening interest. Into such a heaven every 

 child is born who brings into life that leaven 

 of the imagination which later on is to 

 penetrate the universe and make it one in 

 the sublime order of truth and of beauty. 



As I write, the merry shouts of children 

 come through the open window, and seem 

 part of that universal sound in which the 

 stir of leaves, the faint, far song of birds, 

 and the note of insect life are blended. 

 When I came across the field a few mo- 



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