Robbery from Nature 23 



astuteness of a horse-coper and the close-fistedness 

 of a retail grocer. But Nature loads with unsought 

 gifts those who seek her treasures, and it is no poison- 

 ous wind, but the fresh sea-breeze, that blows upon 

 him who clambers the rocks and examines the tide- 

 pool for shells and algae ; ferns hide in the shadiest 

 and most sequestered nooks ; wild flowers and birds- 

 nests the very mention of them suggests 



... a season atween June and May, 

 Half prankt with spring, with summer half imbrowned. 



He who flies at no higher game than moss and 

 lichen will still be led to ivied and crumbling ruins 

 and cpol dells where vivid green carpets the earth and 

 a cushion is thrown on the boulders. And whether 

 a man's pursuit carry him to the sea-beach or the 

 forest, to the river or the rill, it is crowned with 

 health. 



Nevertheless, the desire to hoard and save and 

 gather that so often changes a bright enjoyable amuse- 

 ment into an insensate passion, lies in wait even for 

 the naturalist ; and what in others is a pardonable 

 weakness, becomes in him a crime against society a 

 bibliomaniac seized with a craze for filling his shelves 

 with curious books he hardly ever dreams of opening, 

 and whose hunger to acquire has swallowed up the 

 higher love of reading, though he be but a miser under 

 a different guise, is still of service to the community. 

 It is impossible for a book to have more than one 

 owner at a time, and it is an advantage that he should 



