them or shall follow them ; the painful 

 process of thought, which is first to separate 

 her from Nature and then to reunite her to 

 it in a higher and more spiritual fellowship, 

 has hardly begun. She still walks in the 

 soft light of faith, and drinks in the im- 

 mortal beauty, as the flower at her side 

 drinks in the dew and the light. It is she, 

 after all, who is right as she plays, joyously 

 and at home, on the ground which the 

 earthquake may rock, and under the sky 

 which storms will darken and rend. The 

 far-brought instinct of childhood accepts 

 without a question that great truth of unity 

 and fellowship to which knowledge comes 

 only after long and agonising quest. Be- 

 tween the innocent sleep of childhood in 

 the arms of Nature and the calm repose of 

 the old man in the same enfolding strength 

 there stretches the long, sleepless day of 

 question, search, and suffering ; at the end 

 the wisest returns to the goal from which 

 he set out. 



To the little child, Nature is a succession 

 of new and wonderful impressions. Com- 

 83 



