LOVERS OF NATURE 



We love nature with a different love at dif- 

 ferent periods of our lives. In youth our love 

 is sensuous. It is not so much a conscious love 

 as it is an irresistible attraction. The senses are 

 keen and fresh, and they crave a field for their 

 exercise. We delight in the color of flowers, 

 the perfume of meadows and orchards, the moist, 

 fresh smell of the woods. We eat the pungent 

 roots and barks, we devour the wild fruits, we 

 slay the small deer. Then nature also offers a 

 field of adventure ; it challenges and excites our 

 animal spirits. The woods are full of game, 

 the waters of fish; the river invites the oar, the 

 breeze, the sail, the mountain-top promises a 

 wide prospect. Hence the rod, the gun, the 

 boat, the tent, the pedestrian club. In youth 

 we are nearer the savage state, the primitive 

 condition of mankind and wild nature is our 

 proper home. The transient color of the young 

 bird points its remote ancestry, and the taste of 

 youth for rude nature in like manner is the sur- 

 vival of an earlier race instinct. 



Later in life we go to nature as an escape 

 from the tension and turmoil of business, or for 



