No. i.] NEWER FEELING FOR NATURE. 11 



it has been steadily growing bettor, and that the world, and 

 the people on it, have all common fortunes ; that the best 

 lite is not that which lives "oil" the earth," but in close 

 sym[)atlw with it, and tries to understand and improve it. 

 Out of this feeling a large and increasing nature-literature 

 is being develoi)ed ; books and charts of every character, 

 descriptive or illustrative of the life, halnts and needs of plants 

 and animals; of things on the land, and in the water, and in 

 the air. The whole out-of-doors world has gotten a new 

 meaning, and increasingly the tide is turning from the con- 

 gestion of our cities, homes, factories and even schools, to 

 the countr}^ the half-holiday, a longer sunmier vacation, 

 and to those studies, occu[)ations and professions which bring 

 us nearer to nature, and to a better comprehension of its 

 meanino; and worth to us. One hears more often than for- 

 merly such expressions as '' mother earth," " near to nature's 

 heart," "our little brothers of the woods," "the lap of 

 nature," "the return to nature," and the like. The proces- 

 sion of life has halted and turned back on its track towards 

 the fields, the woods and the streams, so long overlooked, 

 feared, or merely delved to extract a living; to the deeper 

 laws of life, so long disregarded, to study out their secrets 

 and Avoo them with the atiection too long withheld. All this 

 has great promise in it. 



The ground of this, if we j)ass on to consider it, is a deep, 

 latent feeling, — now developed almost to the point of a reli- 

 gion , and certainly deeply aifecting all our religious beliefs, — 

 that we and nature are one ; that we beo;an too:ether, have 

 grown together, and that Ave have the same fortune and des- 

 tiny. More than that, it is felt that the whole has religious 

 meaning, and really that any religion we have which excludes 

 the love and reverence of nature has thrown away the very 

 best guide to the God of all things, of whom nature is our 

 most familiar expression. For, paraphrasing one of the old- 

 time maxims of the church, " If a man love not the world 

 which he hath seen, how can he love the world's Maker whom 

 he hath not seen ? " It is being more and more felt that we 

 cannot so go through the world, which is God's nearer revela- 

 tion, and have any reasonable hope of attaining to a better. 



