THE NATURE-WRITER 123 



vineyard, with the Hudson River flowing along 

 one side of it, the Catskills standing along an- 

 other side of it, with the horizon all around, and 

 overhead the sky, and everywhere, through every- 

 thing, the pulse of life, the song of life, the sense 

 of home ! 



He loves the earth, for the earth is home. 



" I would gladly chant a psean," he exclaims, 

 "for the world as I find it. What a mighty in- 

 teresting place to live in ! If I had my life to live 

 over again, and had my choice of celestial abodes, 

 I am sure I should take this planet, and I should 

 choose these men and women for my friends and 

 companions. This great rolling sphere with its 

 sky, its stars, its sunrises and sunsets, and with its 

 outlook into infinity what could be more de- 

 sirable*? What more satisfying? Garlanded by 

 the seasons, embosomed in sidereal influences, 

 thrilling with life, with a heart of fire and a gar- 

 ment of azure seas and fruitful continents one 

 might ransack the heavens in vain for a better or 

 a more picturesque abode." 



A full-throated hymn, this, to the life that is, 

 in the earth that is, a hymn without taint of cant, 

 without a single note of that fevered desire for a 



