PREFACE 



As most of the essays in this volume were written in 

 a little bark-covered study that is surrounded on 

 all sides by vineyards, I have thought it not inap- 

 propriate for me to go to the vine for a title for the 

 collection. The " leaf " may stand very well for the 

 nature sketches, and the "tendril" may symbolize 

 those other papers in which I have groped my way 

 in some of the great problems, seeking some law 

 or truth to cling to. The tendril is blind, but it is 

 sensitive and outreaching, and aided by the wind, 

 never ceases to feel this way and that for support. 

 Whatever it touches it clings to. One vine will cling 

 to another, or one arm cling to another arm of the 

 same vine. It has no power to select or discriminate 

 — its one overmastering impulse is to cling, no mat- 

 ter to what. Where the tendril strikes the wire, or 

 hooks that sensitive finger around it, how quickly it 

 tightens its hold and winds itself round and round ! 

 In time it becomes almost as hard as the wire itself. 



I, too, have groped my way more or less blindly 

 in some of the great questions that confront us in 

 this world vineyard, and have clung to what I 

 could find, maybe sometimes only to my own con- 

 ceits or vague vaticinations. 



The vines have other hints for me which I try to 



V 



