PREFACE 



THE title and the treatment of this book re- 

 quire a few sentences of explanation. The word 

 " Nature/' as it is used in these pages, does not 

 comprehend animal life in any form whatever. 

 It is applied only to lights, skies, clouds, waters, 

 lands, foliage the great elements that reveal 

 form and color in landscape, tne component 

 parts of the earth-beauty about us. In treating 

 of this nature I have not considered it as the 

 classic or romantic background of human story, 

 nor regarded man as an essential factor in it. 

 Nature is neither classic nor romantic; it is 

 simply nature. Nor is it, as some would have 

 us think, a sympathetic friend of mankind en- 

 dowed with semi-human emotions. Mountains 

 do not " frown," trees do not "weep," nor do 

 skies "smile"; they are quite incapable of 

 doing so. Indeed, so far as any sympathy with 

 humanity is concerned, " the last of thy brother* 

 might vanish from the face of the earth, and not 

 ix 



