4 STUDIES IN THE FIELD AND FOREST. 



charms, nor will his dull imagination lead him to ad- 

 mire a single object that is without self-evident utility. 



There are many persons who live a long life in the 

 country, without acquiring this imaginative habit of the 

 mind. They can enjoy the sight of any thing that con- 

 tributes to their comfort, or to the gratification of their 

 wants and appetites, and of that sort of beauty which 

 is glaring like a modern parterre ; but they are still un- 

 imbued with the love of nature. This is the gift of 

 those who have passed beyond the ordinary plodding 

 stage of mental culture, and who have learned to asso- 

 ciate with almost every object in nature some image 

 derived from the imagination. I believe that all civilized 

 people are more or less affected by it ; but with many 

 it is a circumstance from which they derive a great pro- 

 portion of the happiness they find in this life. It is this 

 sentiment more than any other that enables one to be 

 happy in retirement. He who, when released from the 

 cares of his usual occupations, can find pleasure in a 

 walk in the fields, has a fund of enjoyment, at almost 

 all times and seasons, outsideof his own doors. To 

 persons of this character nature always furnishes exer- 

 cise both for the reason and the imagination. Hence 

 there are two classes of persons that derive pleasure 

 from rural studies and pursuits, — those who study 

 natural history as a science, and those who survey the 

 landscape, and its various objects, with a mind stored 

 with poetic imagery, of which, in one form or another, 

 almost every object is suggestive. These suggestions 

 may arise from images derived from our reading or 

 from our experience ; but no man was ever an enthusi- 

 astic lover of nature, without a proportional share of 

 poetic sensibility. 



A child is pleased with a-flower, because it affects the 



