some as a crowd without friends ; then an orchard 

 without the weather-wise hyla can never make 

 good his place with mere apples ; and the front 

 door without a solemn, philosophic toad beneath 

 its step will lack something quite as needful to 

 its evening peace and homeness as it lacks when 

 the old-fashioned roses and the honeysuckle are 

 gone. 



We are not humble nor thoughtful out of 

 doors. There is too much sentiment in our pas- 

 sion for nature. We make colored plates and 

 poems to her. All honor to the poets ! especially 

 to those who look carefully and see deeply, like 

 Wordsworth and Emerson and Whitman. But 

 what the common run of us needs, when we go 

 a- wooing nature, is not more poetry, but a scien- 

 tific course in biology. How a little study in 

 comparative anatomy, for instance, would reveal 

 to us the fearful and wonderful in the make-up 

 of all animal forms ! And the fearful and won- 

 derful have a meaning and a beauty which we 

 ought to realize. 



We all respond to the flowers and birds, for 

 they demand no mental effort. What about the 

 snakes and frogs'? Do we shiver at them? Do 

 [112] 



