FIRST YEARS OF SUCCESS. 131 



vale, and gaze up at the slow clouds as they 

 drift across the blue vault. The subtle influ- 

 ence of nature penetrates every limb and every 

 vein, fills the soul with a perfect contentment, 

 an absence of all wish except to lie there half 

 in sunshine, half in shade for ever, in a 

 Nirvana of indifference to all but the ex- 

 quisite delight of simply living. The wind 

 in the tree-tops overhead sighs in soft music, 

 and ever and anon a leaf falls with a slight 

 rustle to mark the time. The clouds go by 

 in rhythmic motion, the ferns whisper verses in 

 the ear, the beams of the wondrous sun pour 

 in endless song, for he also 



/"In his motion like an angel sings, 



Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubim, 

 Such harmony is in immortal souls !' 



Time is to us now no more than it was to 

 the oak ; we have no consciousness of it. Only 

 we feel the broad earth beneath us, and as to 

 the ancient giant, so there passes through us 

 a sense of strength renewing itself, of vital 

 energy flowing into the frame. It may be an 

 hour, it may be two hours, when without the 

 aid of sound or sight we become aware by an 



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