NATURE'S END 83 



revising, re-creating, improving, perfecting. An 

 Artist has the general end of creating Beauty, but 

 he is always striving to enrich and intensify it, to 

 create it in greater and greater perfection. And 

 even so does Nature work. 



As the Artist puts himself in touch with the 

 Heart of Nature, the dominant impression he 

 receives is of Nature ever straining after higher 

 perfection, ever striving to achieve a greater 

 excellence, and create beings with higher and higher 

 modes of life. ' He sees her straining upward in the 

 mountain, in the trees, in the climbers on the trees, 

 in every blade of grass. He sees the whole of life 

 straining to achieve higher and higher forms, more 

 perfect flowers, more intelligent animals, more spirit- 

 ual men. He sees the life of the seas stretching up 

 out of the seas on to the land. He sees the life 

 of the land striving to reach the highest points on 

 the land. And he sees it also soaring up into the 

 air and making itself at home there, too. Every- 

 where he sees evidence of aspiration and upward 

 effort. 



But he notes also that with this upward effort 

 there goes a downward pull. The mountain strives 

 upward, but it is drawn down by the forces of 

 gravitation. The eagle soars up in the sky, but 

 has to come down to earth to rest and feed. The 

 poet aspires to heaven, but has to stop on earth 

 and earn his daily bread. 



Nature, like himself, the Artist finds, is engaged 

 in a constant struggle between an impulse to excen- 

 tration and the necessity for concentration. She 

 wants to fly off to the zenith and to the horizon, 



