i8 With Feet to the Earth 



world, for the steady old planet will not go 

 to them ; by jibing with it they gain its 

 tides and seasons. Let your walking be 

 wise by being sympathetic. 



And this should hold in your walks among 

 men, no less than in the fields. One does 

 not know even a work of man, let alone 

 his heart or mind, any more than he knows 

 a phase of nature, unless he views it sym- 

 pathetically. It must be liked for more 

 than its intrinsic beauty if it is a work of 

 art : we must look at it as the result of a 

 self-enjoyment, a hope, a faith. Here is a 

 quaint old Chinese ink-pot. It may be of 

 the Kien Lung period, or it may not : that 

 does not matter. Through the crude deco- 

 ration I see delight in the work for its own 

 sake. There is more in this thoughtful 

 rounding than a wish to finish the job and 

 get the pay ; there is a pride in this sweet, 

 soft blue, fresh as the sky, and a trust that 

 its owner is going to like it. This lump of 

 baked clay is an individual expression : 

 simple, rustic, innocent. So must be all 

 art of its kind ; so, to an extent, must all 

 art be ; so is the essence of the art of see- 



