IV 



LETTERS OF GEORGE KINGSLEY TO HIS 

 WIFE, CONCERNING ISLANDS IN THE 

 SOUTHERN SEAS 



I SUPPOSE all true lovers of Nature have their 

 own views as to which phase of her is loveliest and 

 most worthy of esteem ; and I know that if they 

 be true lovers, they are liable to be very wroth 

 with those who hold some other phase of her in 

 especially great esteem. People who do not love 

 Nature at all, of course, are mere outside barbarians 

 unworthy of consideration, to be differed with in 

 the same spirit that any kind of Christian would 

 display towards a fetish worshipper. Still, as afore- 

 said, we have our internal dissensions, in which 

 feeling runs rather high. For example, I once had 

 the honour of hearing Dr. Nansen discourse on the 

 intense beauty and charm of the arctic night. He 

 discoursed superbly ; one knew he felt the beauty 

 of it ; one saw, as in a glass darkly, there was a beauty 

 in it ; but, well, I — while there is an equator — cannot 

 think why people should bother themselves about 



