THE WAR WITH NATUEE 85 



The young enthusiast, hurrying about London 

 to speak his farewells and look after his outfit, 

 will perhaps laugh at this, for his delusion is still 

 dear to him. But I am not discouraging him; I 

 am, on the contrary, telling him of a rill of pure 

 water out there where he is going, where, for 

 many years to come, he will refresh himself every 

 day, and learn to feel (if not to think and to say) 

 that it is the sweetest rill in existence. 



It is rough living with unsubdued, or only par- 

 tially subdued, Nature, but there is a wonderful 

 fascination in it. The patient, leaden-footed, but 

 always obedient drudge, who goes forth uncom- 

 plainingly, albeit often with a sullen face, about 

 her work, day after day, year after year; who 

 never rebels, never murmurs against her bad task- 

 master Man, although sometimes the strength fails 

 her so that she cannot complete the appointed task 

 - this is Nature at home in England. How strange 

 to see this stolid, immutable creature transformed 

 beyond the seas into a flighty, capricious thing, 

 that will not be wholly ruled by you, a beautiful 

 wayward Undine, delighting you with her origi- 

 nality, and most lovable when she teases most; a 

 being of extremes, always either in laughter or 

 tears, a tyrant and a slave alternately; to-day 

 shattering to pieces the work of yesterday; now 

 cheerfully doing more than is required of her; 

 anon the frantic vixen that buries her malignant 

 teeth into the hand that strikes or caresses her. 

 All these rapid incomprehensible changes, even 



