14 



NATURE FOR ITS OWN SAKE 



light beating at midday npon a field of ripened 

 grain where the fiery red of the poppy gleams 

 in between the yellow stalks ; or again this 

 same light falling upon fields of golden-rod or 

 npon great masses of variegated autumn foliage. 

 Blinding, too, as is the noon-light upon desert 

 sands or prairie uplands or flat smooth seas, 

 yet its breadth and intensity make it one of 

 nature's great glories. And how invisibly it 

 cuts through the air! On yonder mountain 

 we should notice falling rain or snow or even 

 a slight thickening of the atmosphere ; yet 

 all day long the sunbeams fall upon it and 

 we cannot see them. We see the mark they 

 make on crag and tree, we feel their absence 

 when a cloud shuts out the sun ; but that is 

 all. 



As the day wears on, the heat increases. The 

 leaves of the trees and the flowers curl and 

 shrivel, the air rises quivering from the dusty 

 road, the sky grows more rosy even iridescent. 

 The ascending air-currents are active and the 

 atmospheric particles more numerous. Hour 

 after hour the aerial envelope grows denser and 

 heavier, the shadows fainter, the light more 

 diffused. At last, when the sun has fallen to 

 the western horizon and throws its rays along 



