Then, sometimes, in that silence, while he hung 

 Listening, a gentle shock of mild surprise 

 Has carried far into his heart the voice 

 Of mountain torrents ; or the visible scene 

 Would enter unawares into his mind 

 With all its solemn imagery, its rocks, 

 Its woods, and that uncertain heaven, received 

 Into the bosom of the steady lake. 



It is in such moods as this, when all 

 things are forgotten, and heart and mind 

 are open to every sight and sound, that 

 Nature comes to the soul with some deep, 

 sweet message of her inner being, and with 

 invisible hand lifts the curtain of mystery 

 for one hushed and fleeting moment. 



As I write, the memory of a summer 

 afternoon long ago comes back to me. 

 The old orchard sleeps in the dreamy air, 

 the birds are silent, a tranquil spirit broods 

 over the whole earth. Under the wide- 

 spreading branches a boy is intently read- 

 ing. He has fallen upon a bit of transcen- 

 dental writing in a magazine, and for the 

 first time has learned that to some men the 

 great silent world about him, that seems so 

 real and changeless, is immaterial and un- 

 88 



