Autumn Sights and Musings 197 



Olympic games are on when the wind is 

 up. 



Nature encourages these contests ; exists 

 by them. Let the best win. That ambi- 

 tion to excel among men is a mere selfish 

 struggle for wealth and honor, not as in 

 trees and animals, for life. I have but a 

 temperate admiration for the average pub- 

 lic man, finding that in too many cases 

 public service makes for some manner of 

 private end. Devotion to nature, and to 

 men through nature, is always pure and 

 wholesome. We may rely on it that one 

 involves the other, for all nature cries out 

 against men escaping from her. If they 

 attempt it she brings them back with the 

 lash of passion, appetite, chill, or thirst. 

 She pursues like Nemesis and befriends 

 like God. Yet, we read, or feel, a slow 

 advance toward higher, abler forms in the 

 vision of beauty that the world daily puts 

 before us. Man's physical self is a sym- 

 bol of the trend of nature toward men- 

 tality. He is held by the feet to the 

 ground he sprang from, his vital and pro- 

 creative machinery are established next, 



