WAYS WE Ji AMBLES. ii 



thronging life and activity. While I may be lone- 

 some in a crowd, my neighbor is almost sure to feel 

 lonesome in the marsh or the deep ravine. If all 

 men loved Nature with a passion that could not be 

 controlled, much work would be left undone that is 

 indispensable to human life and happiness. I am 

 glad, therefore, that there are many birds of many 

 kinds ; glad, too, that there are many men of many 

 minds. The apostle does well to remind his breth- 

 ren in the church that there are " diversities of gifts " 

 and " diversities of operations," even if all do spring 

 from "the same Spirit." 

 Albeit, as for me, give me 



" A secret nook in a pleasant land, 

 Whose groves the frolic fairies planned." 



Emerson voices my own feeling when he sings : — 



" A woodland walk, 

 A quest of river-grapes, a mocking thrush, 

 A wild rose, or rock-loving columbine, 

 Salve my worst wounds ; " 



for, 



"What friend to friend cannot convey, 

 Shall the dumb bird instructed say." 



And it is true that a wayside ramble will often do, 

 by way of self-revelation and conviction, what no 

 human voice of chastisement can accomplish. Mr. 

 Howells says, in one of his most trenchant analytical 

 novels : " If you 're not in first-rate spiritual condition, 

 you 're apt to get iioored if you undertake to com- 

 mune with Nature." There are times when the very 



