68 March — Effect of a Sudden Transition. 



during the spring season in the heart of a great English 

 city, in which there were no green boulevards or avenues, 

 and whose only refreshment in that kind was a park that 

 had been recently purchased by the common council, far 

 outside in the suburbs. After many delays my business 

 came to an end, and I fled at once to a little corner in 

 the country that was frequented only by artists and 

 anglers — a clean little inn by a river well shaded by 

 ancient trees. We had got to the middle of June and I 

 had not seen a leaf or a flower ; or if my eyes had seen 

 one, the mind had not perceived it in the midst of 

 wearing anxieties. When, therefore, this sudden leisure 

 came upon me, in the glorious birth of summer, I felt 

 the transition like the change from Purgatory to Para- 

 dise. No summer ever seemed to me so wonderful as 

 that did. Every leaf was a marvel, every flower was 

 a delight ; I lay down in depths of dewy grass, and 

 watched the pure sunshine streaming through the per- 

 fect young leaves till they softened it to a quiet green 

 light all around me, that seemed at once to strengthen 

 my jaded eyes and soothe them. Three days after- 

 wards the marvel had passed away, but the recollection 

 of it has ever since remained with me, and explains for 

 me the delight of the citizen in green leaves, and the 

 intensity of sensation about Nature which we find in 

 poets who were bred in towns ; whilst those who have 

 lived much in the country, though they know and 

 observe more, seem to feel more equably, and to go to 

 Nature with less of sensuous thirst and excitement. 

 Exactly the same difference may be observed between 



