EXPLORATIONS 



inal plants in its hollows, waiting always 

 with benediction in its leaves for the com- 

 forting of weary men; but we feel when 

 we know the woods best that these, too, 

 are but its casual benefits; its great pur- 

 pose lies deeper, and the more we seek 

 it the better we know we are. 



Great men come out of the forests of 

 the earth. If they are not born there 

 they seek the place before coming to their 

 greatness. Lincoln hews rails, Washing- 

 ton surveys and scouts, and Roosevelt 

 ranches in the Western wilderness. Per- 

 haps it is for these and their kin that 

 the woods exist. It is always Peter the 

 Hermit that leads the crusade, and with- 

 out crusades the world were a poor place. 

 It seems as if all our prophets must 

 wrestle at least forty days in the wilder- 

 ness before coming forth with brows 



white with the mark of immortality. 

 117 



