ATTACHMENT TO NATURE. 33 



not one exception to them; and, therefore, the 

 lesson that they teach us must be wisdom. It is 

 wisdom, too, which hears directly upon our pre- 

 sent object ; and it is wisdom which is soon 

 learned. 



It is simply this : that in those wild and, as we 

 would call them, barren places, man's chief occu- 

 pation and converse are with nature ; whereas, in 

 richer places, where there is more to tempt worldly 

 ambition and worldly enterprise, art is his chief 

 occupation, and becomes by habit his chief enjoy- 

 ment. Now, up to a certain point, and that as 

 high as you please, so that it is not exclusive, the 

 practice of art is highly commendable ; and people 

 can never make too many useful things, make 

 them too well, or be too diligent, or take too much 

 delight in the making of them. It is that atten- 

 tion to art which has made our country what it is, 

 given to the humblest of our cottagers comforts, 

 for which the chiefs and kings of some tribes 

 would be delighted to change their kingdoms and 

 thrones. Not only that, but which, in absolute 

 comfort, and in that greatest of all comforts, the 

 means of acquiring information, has placed the 

 peasant of the present day in circumstances more 

 favourable than those of the peer two centuries 

 ago ; which has now rooted itself firmly through- 

 out the country, and is like a goodly tree, ever 

 verdant and ever fruitful, rearing its top to the 

 heavens, and spreading its boughs to the utter- 

 most ends of the earth. Well should we love that, 

 and dear to us all should be that country, those 

 fathers, and those institutions, which have brought 

 it forward, and preserved it for our use ; and gladly 

 should we bestow our brightest thought and our 



