A SHARP LOOKOUT. 31 



Nature will include the disagreeable and repulsive 

 also. I have seen the phallic fungus growing in June 

 Under a rose-bush. There was the rose, and beneath 

 it, springing from the same mould, was this diabolical 

 offering to Priapus. With the perfume of the roses 

 into the open window came the stench of this hideous 

 parody, as if in mockery. I removed it, and another 

 appeared in the same place shortly afterward. The 

 earthman was rampant and insulting. Pan is not 

 dead yet. At least he still makes a ghastly sign here 

 and there in nature. 



The good observer of nature exists in fragments, a 

 trait here and a trait there. Each person sees what 

 it concerns him to see. The fox-hunter knows pretty 

 well the ways and habits of the fox, but on any other 

 subject he is apt to mislead you. He comes to see 

 only fox traits in whatever he looks upon. The bee- 

 hunter will follow the bee, but lose the bird. The 

 farmer notes what affects his crops and his earnings, 

 and little else. Common people, St. Pierre says, ob- 

 serve without reasoning, and the learned reason with- 

 out observing. If one could apply to the observation 

 of nature the sense and skill of the South American 

 rastreador, or trailer, how much he would track home. 

 This man's eye, according to the accounts of travel- 

 ers, is keener than a hound's scent. A fugitive can 

 no more elude him than he can elude fate. His per- 

 ceptions are said to be so keen that the displacement 

 of a leaf or pebble, or the bending down of a spear 

 of grass, or the removal of a little dust from the 



