THE COUNTRY HOME [CHAPTER 
cannot do all the transforming at once — it is a 
growth. Meanwhile you are yourselves transform- 
ing, and are seeing more clearly what is natural and 
beautiful and wise. I myself prefer that the plot 
that you select be without a house; but have a grove 
and an orchard, or at least a few trees. It may 
have been a pasture; and if so the soil will not be 
barren, although it will greatly need cultivation. 
More likely, in buying an old place you will find 
confusion. A dozen ideas of successive owners 
or tenants will have grown over each other, and 
created a snarl, which will tax your patience to 
straighten out. 
We must, however, get at this matter more spe- 
cifically, and find out what each one proposes to do 
in the country. That is not very unlike asking, 
What are you? What do you want of the trees and 
the soil? I should like to feel that every one of you 
intend to establish frank, honest relations with 
the material world — or a piece of it — yourself 
furnishing the soul. That is, you mean to open 
your mind to the physical universe; and so let the 
universe open its mind to you. You do not intend 
to build a home with your eyes shut, and your ears 
shut, and even your sense of smell aborted. “Of 
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