NATURE MYTHS AND ALLEGORIES 



SOME who read these lines will perhaps remember that 

 enchanted region of Val Bregaglia, where the forest stretches 

 downward from Soglio to Castasegna, through several miles 

 of majesty and loveliness : the long aisles of secular chestnut- 

 trees interlacing their branches overhead, the golden weight 

 of foliage and fruit upon the boughs, the firm short sward and 

 yielding moss around gray venerable stems, the sun and 

 shadow falling on lilac crocuses and russet drift of scattered 

 leaves ; and, above all, the sculptured cliffs of Monte Zocco, 

 with Bondasca's snaky glaciers uplifted in the luminous 

 expanse of azure air, which separates those sphinxes of the 

 Alps from our verdurous haunt among the clustering trees. 



In such a place, earth, the ancient mother, seems to enfold 

 man with loving-kindness and a soothing tenderness of beauty. 

 Yet those splintered mountains, older far than man or forest, 

 the frozen rivers and the waste of stones descending from their 

 girdle, the deep untroubled blue to which they rear their 

 javelin points of cloven granite, the limitless and living 

 atmosphere which softens them and makes the vision to our 

 eyes endurable all these things remind us of the unity in 

 nature, whereby in some mysterious manner our tranquil 

 pleasure in the woodland is linked with primeval forces far 

 away and unapproachable, yet ever near and active in our 

 being with the universal power that brought us into life, with 

 cosmic tumult and with order, with interstellar serenity and 

 gloom, with the everlasting clasp of God, who holds mankind 

 and mountains in the hollow of His hand and binds the fabric 

 of the world together in one vital whole. 



