LEAF AND TENDRIL 



one equal to the other in the art of seeing things. 

 The great mass of mankind are, in this respect, 

 Hke the rank and file of an army: they fire vaguely 

 in the direction of the enemy, and if they hit, it is 

 more a matter of chance than of accurate aim. But 

 here and there is the keen-eyed observer; he is 

 the sharpshooter; his eye selects and discriminates, 

 his purpose goes to the mark. 



Even the successful angler seems bom, and not 

 made; he appears to know instinctively the ways 

 of trout. The secret is, no doubt, love of the sport. 

 Love sharpens the eye, the ear, the touch; it 

 quickens the feet, it steadies the hand, it arms 

 against the wet and the cold. What we love to do, 

 that we do well. To know is not all; it is only 

 half. To love is the other half. Wordsworth's poet 

 was contented if he might enjoy the things which 

 others understood. This is generally the attitude 

 of the young and of the poetic nature. The man 

 of science, on the other hand, is contented if he 

 may understand the things that others enjoy: that 

 is his enjoyment. Contemplation and absorption 

 for the one; investigation and classification for the 

 other. We probably all have, in varying degrees, 

 one or the other of these ways of enjoying Nature : 

 either the sympathetic and emotional enjoyment of 

 her which the young and the artistic and the poetic 

 temperament have, or the enjoyment through our 

 knowing faculties afforded by natural science, or, it 

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