The poet and tlie naturalist seldom soar into 

 heaven when the open sky is directly over them. 

 They ride a centaur out-of-doons. They keep 

 Pegasus stalled in the study. 



Every close, sympathetic observer of nature 

 ought to hope and patiently work for those rare 

 moments of- wide, free vision when he stands 

 upon the heights, when the veil of distance falls, 

 shroudingall with largeness, mystery, and beauty. 

 It is his right to 



Clasp the crag with crooked hands 

 Close to the sun in lonely lands, 



as truly as the eagle's. Only he must not roost 

 and nest there. Such visions are vouchsafed 

 occasionally to prophets, poets, and at long in- 

 tervals to naturalists and to common men. Pis- 

 gah came but once to Moses, though his pathway 

 ran forty years through the wilderness. We shall 

 stand on Pisgah— but not until we have wan- 

 dered awhile in the Plains of Moab. 



And what other way is there to Pisgah ? The 



only preparation of soul for the grand in nature 



is the study of the small and the near at hand. 



"We must reckon infinite things in terms finite— 



[167] 



