AUTUMN 63 



to the world's stock of knowledge. Let 

 them be respected accordingly. Our creed 

 is more frankly hedonistic ; and their virtue 



— I am free to confess it — shines the 

 brighter for the contrast. 



This year, nevertheless, old Franconia 

 had for us, also, one most welcome novelty, 

 the story of which I have kept, like the good 

 wine, — a pretty small glassful, I am aware, 



— for the end of the feast. I had never 

 enjoyed the old things better. Eight or 

 nine years ago, writing — in this magazine ^ 



— of June in Franconia, I expressed a fear 

 that our dehght in the beauty of nature 

 might grow to be less keenly felt with ad- 

 vancing age; that we might ultimately be 

 driven to a more scientific use of the out- 

 ward world, putting the exercise of curiosity, 

 what we call somewhat loftily the acquisition 

 of knowledge, in the place of rapturous con- 

 templation. So it may yet fall out, to be 

 sure, since age is still advancing, but as far 

 as present indications go, nothing of the sort 

 seems at all imminent. I begin to believe, 

 in fact, that things will turn the other way ; 



1 The Atlantic Monthly, 



