THE COUNTRY HOME [chapter 



cannot do all the transforming at once — it is a 

 growth. Meanwhile you are yourselves transform- 

 ing, and are seeing more clearly what is natural and 

 beautiful and wise. I myself prefer that the plot 

 that you select be without a house; but have a grove 

 and an orchard, or at least a few trees. It may 

 have been a pasture; and if so the soil will not be 

 barren, although it will greatly need cultivation. 

 More likely, in buying an old place you will fiild 

 confusion. A dozen ideas of successive owners 

 or tenants will have grown over each other, and 

 created a snarl, which will tax your patience to 

 straighten out. 



We must, however, get at this matter more spe- 

 cifically, and find out what each one proposes to do 

 in the country. That is not very unlike asking, 

 What are you ? What do you want of the trees and 

 the soil ? I should like to feel that every one of you 

 intend to establish frank, honest relations with 

 the material world — or a piece of it — yourself 

 furnishing the soul. That is, you mean to open 

 your mind to the physical universe; and so let the 

 universe open its mind to you. You do not intend 

 to build a home with your eyes shut, and your ears 

 shut, and even your sense of .^^mell aborted "Of 



[22] 



