The Trail 



love; but they hide from your description in 

 words or pigments. 



Finally, in the lowest of whispers, your nature 

 tells you that the most impressive and still most 

 natural thing in this quiet scene is the conscious 

 life that broods silently over it. As the little pond 

 seems to awaken, to be alive and sentient, so also 

 does that noble tree yonder when you view it for 

 the first time, or that delicate orchid wafting its 

 fragrance over the lonely bog. Each reflects some- 

 thing greater than itself, and it is that greater 

 "something" which appeals to you when you 

 enter the solitude. Your impressions here are 

 those of the first man, a man who found many 

 beautiful things in a garden, and God walking 

 among them in the cool of the day. Call the 

 brooding life God or the Infinite or the Unknown 

 or the Great Spirit or the Great Mystery what 

 you will; the simple fact is that you have an 

 impression of a living Being, who first speaks to 

 you in terms of personality that you understand. 



So much, and more, of eternal understanding you 

 may have if you but tarry a moment under these 

 larches with an open mind. Then, when you have 

 honored your first impression, which will abide 

 with you always, you may trace out the physical 

 features of my pon.d at leisure. Just here it is 

 not very wide; your eye easily overlooks it to rest 



[243] 



