THE NATURE-WRITER 123 



vineyard, with the Hudson River flowing along 

 one side of it, the Catskills standing along an- 

 other side of it, with the horizon all around, and 

 overhead the sky, and everywhere, through every- 

 thing, the pulse of life, the song of life, the sense 

 of home ! 



He loves the earth, for the earth is home. 



"I would gladly chant a paean," he exclaims, 

 "for the world as I find it. What a mighty in- 

 teresting place to live in ! If I had my life to live 

 over again, and had my choice of celestial abodes, 

 I am sure I should take this planet, and I should 

 choose these men and women for my friends and 

 companions. This great rolling sphere with its 

 sky, its stars, its sunrises and sunsets, and with its 

 outlook into infinity — what could be more de- 

 sirable? What more satisfying? Garlanded by 

 the seasons, embosomed in sidereal influences, 

 thrilling with life, with a heart of fire and a gar- 

 ment of azure seas and fruitful continents — one 

 might ransack the heavens in vain for a better or 

 a more picturesque abode." 



A full-throated hymn, this, to the life that is, 

 in the earth that is, a hymn without taint of cant, 

 without a single note of that fevered desire for a 



