X THROUGH MY SPECTACLES 



have not cared to see " are the subjects of the following 

 chapters things not rare, nor seclusive, nor foreign, 

 which are to be found in almost any of our woods, or 

 fields, or copses, and which any wide-awake saunterer 

 may discern with " half an eye," if that member be prop- 

 erly equipped. Anticipation is an equipment, the surest 

 talisman to discovery, and anticipation may be quick- 

 ened either by pictorial hint or previous experience. The 

 retina must be on the alert. A boy who has woodchucks 

 in his eye as he crosses the farm is sure to see his wood- 

 chuck, while otherwise he never had got a glimpse of 

 him. It matters not in what particular direction the 

 eye is educated ; the habit of observation in one field 

 quickens the powers of perception in any other, and the 

 results depend not upon the eye the camera but upon 

 the spirit and inspiration behind the retina, for " there 

 is no more power to see in the eye itself than in any 

 other jelly;" in the words of William Blake, "we see 

 tlirougJi it, not with it," even as through our spectacles. 



Moreover, to the average observer, if the eye is ever 

 thus to be a means of grace it must store up its harvest 

 while hearts are light and life is new, when eyes are 

 bright and unbedimmed. How many a prisoner caged 

 in city walls is living on the harvest stored in free, un- 

 burdened youth, and which has never been replenished. 



"When one thinks of the Greeks," writes Ouida, 

 "playing, praying, laboring, lecturing, dreaming, sculpt- 

 uring, training, living everlastingly in the free wind and 

 under the pure heavens, and then reflects that the chief 

 issue of civilization is to pack human beings like salt- 

 fish in a barrel, with never a sight of leaf or cloud, never 

 a whisper of breeze or bird oh, the blessed blind men 

 who talk of Progress! ' 



In the more serious pursuit of scientific study, the 

 wilds offer limitless opportunities to the" close observer, 

 and especially to the young whose lives are spent among 



