118 OUTDOOR STUDIES 
it is far easier to impress a plausible thought on 
the complaisance of others, than to retain an 
unfaltering faith in it for ourselves. The most 
dogged reformer distrusts himself every little 
while, and says inwardly, like Luther, “Art 
thou alone wise?” So he is compelled to ex- 
aggerate, in the effort to hold his own. The 
community is bored by the conceit and egotism 
of the innovators; so it is by that of poets and 
artists, orators and statesmen; but if we knew 
how heavily ballasted all these poor fellows 
need to be, to keep an even keel amid so many 
conflicting tempests of blame and praise, we 
should hardly reproach them. But the simple 
enjoyments of outdoor life, costing next to 
nothing, tend to equalize all vexations. What 
matter if the governor removes you from office? 
he cannot remove you from the lake; and if. 
readers or customers will not bite, the pickerel 
will. We must keep busy, of course; yet we 
cannot transform the world except very slowly, 
and we can best preserve our patience in the 
society of Nature, who does her work almost 
as imperceptibly as we. 
And for literary training, especially, the in- 
fluence of natural beauty is simply priceless. 
Under the present educational systems we need 
grammars and languages far less than a more 
thorough outdoor experience. On this flowery 
