64 INDOOE STUDIES 



ture than war, because it is more artificial ; nature 

 does not have such full swing in it. The black- 

 smith interests us more than the gunsmith; we see 

 more of nature at his forge. The farmer is dearer 

 to literature than the merchant; the gardener than 

 the agricultural chemist; the drover, the herder, the 

 fisherman, the lumberman, the miner, are more in- 

 teresting to her than the man of more elegant and 

 artificial pursuits. 



The reason of all this is clear to see. We are em- 

 bosomed in nature ; we are an apple on the bough, a 

 babe at the breast. In nature, in God, we live and 

 move and have our being. Our life depends upon 

 the purity, the closeness, the vitality of the con- 

 nection. We want and must have nature at first 

 hand; water from the spring, milk from the udder, 

 bread from the wheat, air from the open. Vitiate 

 our supplies, weaken our connection, and we fail. 

 All our instincts, appetites, functions, must be kept 

 whole and normal; in fact, our reliance is wholly 

 upon nature, and this bears fruit in the mind. In 

 art, in literature, in life, we are drawn by that 

 which seems nearest to, and most in accord with, 

 her. Natural or untaught knowledge, — how much 

 closer it touches us than professional knowledge! 

 Keep me close to nature, is the constant demand of 

 literature; open the windows and let in the air, the 

 sun, let in health and strength; my blood must 

 have oxygen, my lungs must be momentarily filled 

 with the fresh unhoused element. I cannot breathe 

 the cosmic ether of the abtruse inquirer, nor, thrive 



