Robin Hood's Barn 



new beauty of each day was your very own to 

 seek. 



However, as I later came to know, this beauty 

 was no light-of-love to be forced and hurried into 

 yielding. Sought roughly, come on carelessly, it 

 escaped the memory after a faint tingling of the 

 sense. If it was to draw close, to show its open 

 face, it must be sought as the painter seeks it, 

 in quietness, in patience, and in peace. Each 

 bravery of color, each grace of line, must be taken 

 first into the mind, considered carefully, and rev- 

 erently held. So only would it give itself into 

 possession; a possession so complete that it 

 merged with consciousness and became a part of 

 one's own self. 



What matter that I cannot set such wonders 

 down, translate them to a testament ; that I come 

 back from my pilgrimage with brushes clean, my 

 canvas all untouched? Surely it is something 

 awesome to have seen; and to have in the holy 

 places of my mind a beauty beyond my own ca- 

 pacity to paint. Tarnished might grow the clear 

 yellow of the mustard fields beneath my touch, 

 and dulled the azure that slopes down so bril- 



[48] 



