Satisfaction with the Country 







IF only we grown-ups had the child's 

 imagination the walls of cities would 

 not shut in upon our minds, however they 

 might keep us from walking and seeing. 

 Even then we must have known the coun- 

 try in youth to revive it in our memories 

 and build hopes upon it. We cannot 

 create much in our heads : we merely re- 

 arrange old material, and give out in pro- 

 portion as we have taken in. We took it 

 in through our ancestors, or it was cumu- 

 lative through them, maybe, for whence 

 did Emerson gather his might ? Anyway : 

 having seen the country in childhood, having 

 breathed and smelled it, having rolled in 

 its grass and snow and swung in its trees, 

 having eaten its fruits and drunk of its 

 springs, having been in touch with its spirit, 

 it is ours for aye, and we bless those healing 

 moments when in fancy we are miles from 



