FIELD AND STUDY 



Nature and it is brought immeasurably near. I see 

 it, touch it, hear it, smell it. I see the flowers, the 

 birds, and all engaging aspects of field and wood 

 and sky. I am a part of it. I see my absolute de- 

 pendence upon it, and that denying it or slighting 

 it, or turning my back upon it, were like denying or 

 slighting gravity. 



Where are the tracks we made in the snow last 

 winter? How real they seemed! how much they 

 expressed! They told which way we were going, 

 whether we were hurrying or sauntering, what we 

 had on our feet, and they might easily tell if we 

 bore a burden, or if we were drunk or sober, if we 

 w^ere man, or woman, or child. They were real. 

 The snow still exists in the form of water or vapor, 

 and the feet that imprinted themselves upon the 

 snow may still exist, but the tracks that meant so 

 much — where are they? The track was simply a 

 record, like any other print or writing, and does not 

 exist apart from the material substance that gave 

 and took the impression. Are we ourselves anything 

 more than the tracks of the Eternal in the dust of 

 earth? 



The serious, reverent, and truth -loving mind will 

 never be without religion, because these traits are 

 the fountain-head of all religious emotion. Add the 

 logical faculty, and the gift of imagination, and such 



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