FOOTPATHS 



scape character of our highways is quite unknown 

 in that country. 



The absence of the paths and lanes is not so 

 great a matter, but the decay of the simplicity of 

 manners, and of the habits of pedestrianism which 

 this absence implies, is what I lament. The devil 

 is in the horse to make men proud and fast and 

 ill-mannered ; only when you go afoot do you grow 

 in the grace of gentleness and humility. But no 

 good can come out of this walking mania that is 

 now sweeping over the country, simply because it 

 is a mania and not a natural and wholesome im- 

 pulse. It is a prostitution of the noble pastime. 



It is not the walking merely, it is keeping your- 

 self in tune for a walk, in the spiritual and bodily 

 condition in which you can find entertainment and 

 exhilaration in so simple and natural a pastime. 

 You are eligible to any good fortune when you are 

 in the condition to enjoy a walk. When the air 

 and the water taste sweet to you, how much else will 

 taste sweet ! When the exercise of your limbs affords 

 you pleasure, and the play of your senses upon 

 the various objects and shows of nature quickens 

 and stimulates your spirit, your relation to the 

 world and to yourself is what it should be, simple 

 and direct and wholesome. The mood in which 

 you set out on a spring or autumn ramble or a 

 sturdy winter walk, and your greedy feet have to 

 be restrained from devouring the distances too fast, 

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