IV 



On seeking for a way back to Nature — The natural man and 

 his surroundings — When pain is pleasure — Man in unison 

 with Nature — "Intuition of snow," a notion fantastic and 

 true — Influence of the wind — The wind a promoter of 

 thought — Flying thoughts — Help from the physicists — 

 Phantasms in the wind — Telepathic messages — A domestic 

 drama — Is the wind a mind-messenger? — A desire of the 

 mind — The poet expresses it — Is it a delusion ? — Conjectures 

 — Mental embryology — Telepathy inherited from the animals. 



I ONCE knew a man, an English sheep-farmer 

 in South America, who would mount his horse 

 on a rainy day in summer to go out for a long 

 ride without a cloak, so as to get a thorough wetting. 

 This was, he assured me, his greatest pleasure. 



It reminds me of a great financier and millionaire 

 who, when his day's business was done, would shut 

 himself up in a room sacred from intrusion, where, 

 throwing off his clothes, he would lie naked on a 

 rug before a huge fire and soak himself in the heat 

 for an hour or so. This, he said, was his best time, 

 his chief happiness in life. 



And a very good sort of happiness, as many of us 

 know from experience; yet one pities that poor, 

 unhappy, toiling plutocrat who had no other way of 

 coming back to Nature. 



I have known others whose chief happiness was 



in walking — walking steadily and fast their twenty or 



thirty miles a day, with no object at all except that 



it gave them a sense of escape from an irksome indoor 



c 33 



