6 STUDIES IN THE FIELD AND FOREST. 



ployed ill decorating a hall for a festive occasion, seize 

 an opportunity to go into the woods, shows an innate 

 love of nature still glowing warmly in their hearts. 

 Upon arriving there and commencing their rustic work 

 of plunder, beneath the odorous pines or among the 

 trailing evergreens, they are struck with surprise at the 

 sudden buoyancy that animates their spirits. There 

 are but few who have yet learned how nature is ever 

 ready to contribute to the enjoyments of those, who, 

 with humble mind are ready to receive her gifts, where 

 only they can be fully enjoyed, under the threshold of 

 her own temples in the fields and woods. It is then, 

 while looking with delight upon the husbandman en- 

 gaged in his rustic toUs, we feel a painful regret that 

 we ourselves cannot return to those occupations, which 

 are, after all, the truest sources of happiness. 



Nature, by having endowed mankind with this innate 

 love of rural pursuits, proves her design that our happi- 

 ness should depend on her own munificence ; and on 

 the love with which her scenes inspire us, depends our 

 capacity to preserve our minds from sadness, and to 

 turn the good things of earth into fountains of joy. 

 She has disclosed to the eyes of the worldly man, only 

 the mere surface of beauty : but for him who yields 

 himself to her guidance, there is an inner light pro- 

 vided that opens to him an infinite world of wonders 

 and stores of happiness. The green plain and the blue 

 vault of heaven do not escape the notice of the most 

 uncultivated boor ; but to the man of feeling alone do 

 they convey an idea of the immensity of the one, and 

 the infinite beauty of the other. 



Man can make himself happy only by confining his 

 ambition to the simple attainment of the approbation 

 of vu-tuous men, and by restraining his desires within 



