THE SEARCH AND FINDING 



gentle slope south or eastward, which should 

 catch the first beams of the morning, and the 

 first warmth of every recurring spring. 



In a mere economic point of view, such slope 

 is commended in every northern latitude by 

 the best of agricultural reasons. In all tem- 

 perate zones two hours of morning are worth 

 three of the afternoon. I do not know an old 

 author upon husbandry who does not affirm 

 my choice, with respect to all temperate re- 

 gions. If this be true of European countries, 

 it must be doubly true of America, where the 

 most trying winds for fruit, or for frail tem- 

 pers, drive from the northwest. 



And with the slope, as with the wood and 

 with the sea, come visions; — visions of sloping 

 shores of bays, into whose waters the land 

 dips with every recurring tide; and where, as 

 the gentlest of tides fall (so upon the Adriatic 

 coast), an empurpled line of fine sea mosses 

 lies crimped upon white sand, and pearly shells 

 glitter in the sun. Or — of lake shores, gentle 

 as Idyls (so of Windermere), with grassy 

 slopes so near and neighborly to the water, 

 that the mower, as he clips the last sentinels in 

 green, sweeps his blade with a bubbling swirl 

 of sound, quite into the margin of the lake. 



Southern slopes, again, suggest luscious 



17 



