152 With Feet to the Earth 



rattling pavements and the loud-speaking 

 throng. We are in the home of our youth, 

 or in that serene retreat that we promise 

 for our age, that ideal ; for all futures are 

 ideal, and unseen glories never fade. Our 

 feet may be in the market, but our vision 

 is among the hills. We live an idyl for 

 ten minutes. 



Most of us are willing to live idyls, at 

 least, until we are a dozen years old. We 

 are measurably content till then. Yet, 

 while content has been best expressed by 

 youth, it should be a gain of later life, 

 when ambition is sated or given over, when 

 bulk and stiff joints incline one to easy- 

 chairs, when monotony has been discovered 

 in shows and sights, when the futility of 

 much struggle has been proved, when we 

 have learned that it is less in the outward 

 world than in ourselves that we are to find 

 rest and satisfaction. It is not to be denied 

 that there is a charm in stable things, and 

 there is a " love of security, of an habitually 

 undisputed standing ground or sleeping 

 place," that should have shown itself in 

 every man, though tenement-bred to the 



