OUTDOOR LIFE IN LITERATURE. T5 
of old sailors, it may be, who had passed far to the 
gates of the Lestrygones, ‘where such a narrow rim of 
night divided day from day that a man who needed not 
sleep might earn a double hire, and the cry of the shep- 
herd at evening driving home his flock was heard by 
the shepherd going out in the morning to pasture.” 
What fascinating pictures, too, we get of that under 
world where, amid ‘“‘an ampler ether, a diviner air,” 
heroes and wise men roam over the grassy meads of 
the Elysian fields where violet, lily and asphodel bloom 
forever, and rejoice their souls in sweet converse of 
their deeds in the upper world that had passed. 
English literature abounds with charming descrip- 
tions of Nature. In that luxurious land where life has 
flowed for so many in quiet channels, there have been 
many opportunities for that loving observation so often 
recorded in fitting language. Such little volumes as 
Walton’s ‘‘Complete Angler,” White’s ‘Natural His- 
tory of Selborne” and Miss Mitford’s “Our Village” 
are expressions of the English love of outdoor life. 
The list of English poets from whose writings might be 
gathered apt illustrations of this theme, from Chaucer 
through five centuries to Tennyson and Morris, is a 
long one. Just as when one who walks through forest 
glade or dewy mead comes unexpectedly upon some 
rare new orchid or fern, or sees flashing in the sunlight 
like a ball of flame that woodland beauty, the scarlet 
