Satisfaction with the Country 165 



purple depths, color evading definition, 

 promising mystery, not livid, hinting at 

 life ? Are they drawn to those fastnesses ? 

 Is the stir of soul in the person as it was 

 in the race, so that dryads hide there for 

 him ? Always baffling, always consciously 

 holding silence over some secret, still the 

 woods are not unfriendly. 



And as time passes and we gain insight, 

 nature surely lightens and grows tender. 

 To our clearing eyes, without the fancy of 

 youth, it does not make such pictures for 

 us as it did. The bunch of trees away 

 yonder on the hill is not a castle where 

 deeds of chivalry are acted ; the silver 

 shining of the cascade is not a door open- 

 ing to glories of fairy-land ; tree, rock, and 

 sky beget a high worth of their own, and 

 demand a maturer love and admiration. 

 Normal men grow cheery with advancing 

 years, when they touch nature often. It is 

 a curious and suggestive fact that the color 

 schemes of great painters clear, soften, and 

 rise in key as they grow older. Corot be- 

 gan with brown and ended with silver. The 

 first was of the earth ; heaven was in the 



