NATURE & OBSERVATION 



Most of us, I believe, have far more chances 

 of living with Nature and of trying to under- 

 stand the meaning and beauty of the world 

 around us than we are at all able to profit by. 

 We have eyes but we do not see, we have ears 

 but we do not hear, and so we go through life, 

 missing half the pleasures that have been pre- 

 pared for us, and understanding but a small 

 part of what we do not miss. Let us therefore 

 try to learn, while we may, how to make good 

 use of our time. 



The best way to begin is to go out into the 

 country for a little while and look about us, and 

 then, when we have remembered and thought 

 over what we have seen, go again to find out if 

 the things we notice are still there and look the 

 same as they did before. Some of the ones we 

 saw at first will have altered and new ones will 

 have appeared. By going out at different times 

 of the day and different seasons of the year we 

 shall soon know what there is to be seen. This 

 is the way in which artists and poets study the 

 world, and find out a great deal more about it 

 than most of us will ever do. They will not 

 perhaps spend much time in the fields, but they 

 will see a great deal, and remember some 

 special part of what they have seen. They 

 have this wonderful gift of observation. More- 

 over, they can afterwards tell us what they have 

 seen, and can put down the meaning of it to 

 them in colours or in words for us to study. 



(3) 



