28 NATURE IN DOWNLAND 



greater pleasure which we receive from flowing out- 

 lines than from those that are angular, as Herbert 

 Spencer has pointed out, is due to the harmonious un- 

 restrained action of the ocular muscles occupied in the 

 perception of such outlines. On these downs, for the 

 sight and that bodily sensation which cannot be disso- 

 ciated from sight, there are no impassable chasms, no 

 steep heights difficult to climb, nor jagged rocks and 

 broken surfaces to impede free movement and passage. 



Finally we have as another important element in 

 our pleasure the large prospect disclosed. Why a 

 wide horizon should have so great a fascination for 

 us, wingless walkers on the level ground, is a curious 

 question. It is not merely a childish delight in a 

 novel sensation ; I should rather look on it as a 

 survival, like our fighting, hunting, and various other 

 instincts — an inherited memory of a period when 

 the hill top was at the same time refuge, fortress, 

 and tower of observation from which all hidden 

 things stood revealed — where men, losing their fear 

 and feeling superior to their enemies, were lifted 

 above themselves. 



One would be only too glad to believe the feeling 

 to be different in its origin, and in a sense prophetic 

 — like the unnecessarily large brains of primitive 

 man, according to the Wallacian doctrine — pointing 

 to a time when we shall be able, with the aid of 

 perfected machinery, or, better still, by means of 

 some mysterious undeveloped faculty within us, to 



