176 FOOTING IT IN FRANCONIA 



for surprise and thankfulness; a world 

 which cannot turn round but that men die 

 of heat and by freezing, of thirst and by 

 drowning; a world where all things, appe- 

 tite and passion, as well as heat and cold, 

 run continually to murderous extremes. A 

 strange world, surely, which men have 

 agreed to justify and condemn in the same 

 breath as the work of supreme wisdom, 

 ruined by original sin. Children will have 

 an explanation. The philosopher says : "My 

 son, we must know how to be ignorant." 



So my thoughts ran away with me till the 

 clematis vine and the cherry bushes brought 

 me back to myself. The present hour was 

 good ; the birds and the plants were happy ; 

 and so was I, though for the moment I had 

 almost forgotten it. The mountain had its 

 old inscrutable, beckoning, admonishing, be- 

 nignant look. The wise make no complaint. 

 If the world is not the best we could imagine, 

 it is the best we have ; and such as it is, it is 

 a pretty comfortable place in vacation time 

 and fair weather. Let me not be among 

 the fools who waste a bright to-day in fore- 

 casting dull to-morrows. 



