100 FLOWER-FIELDS OF ALPINE SWITZERLAND 



us to share the intimacy in which we live with 

 things hidden and secret. Even we ourselves 

 suffer in this manner, and we deny to ourselves 

 qualities we " see " and " know " in what we cannot 

 see and do not know. What a very curious blend of 

 contradictions we are ! In one and the same breath 

 we will unduly belaud and unduly belittle our- 

 selves ; but we are no more the restricted creatures 

 of our fancy than we are the centre and hub of the 

 universe. Although, manifestly short-sighted, we 

 stumble about in most awkward fashion, still we 

 are dehcately receptive of subtle, moving influ- 

 ences. We are instruments of far-reaching powers, 

 but we look upon ourselves as freer agents than 

 the case warrants. We imagine we go here and 

 go there entirely of our own voHtion, yet if we 

 were really such lonely automatons as this we 

 should be immeasurably more stupid than we are. 



It must not surprise us, then, if Science some 

 day convinces us that both in thought and in 

 action we are moved by many things with which we 

 now say we have no connection, and that amongst 

 these things will be found the flowers ; it must 

 not astonish us if such a phrase as " The Call of 

 the Wild " is possessed of an intrinsic meaning, the 

 fulness and scope of which we now consider it an 



