A YEAR IN THE FIELDS 



nation of the poet ; before it can become 

 science, it must pass through the under- 

 standing of the scientist. Or one may say, 

 it is with the thoughts and half thoughts 

 that the walker gathers in the woods and 

 fields, as with the common weeds and 

 coarser wild flowers which he plucks for a 

 bouquet, — wild carrot, purple aster, moth 

 mullein, sedge, grass, etc. : they look com- 

 mon and uninteresting enough there in the 

 fields, but the moment he separates them 

 from the tangled mass, and brings them in- 

 doors, and places them in a vase, say of 

 some choice glass, amid artificial things, 

 — behold, how beautiful ! They have an 

 added charm and significance at once ; they 

 are defined and identified, and what was com- 

 mon and familiar becomes unexpectedly at- 

 tractive. The writer's style, the quality of 

 mind he brings, is the vase in which his 

 commonplace impressions and incidents are 

 made to appear so beautiful and significant. 

 Man can have but one interest in nature, 

 namely, to see himself reflected or inter- 

 preted there ; and we quickly neglect both 

 poet and philosopher who fail to satisfy, in 

 some measure, this feeling. 



220 



