ELEMENTS OF LANDSCAPE 



majesty; Killarney and Lomond are famous 

 in song and story; and we can never forget 

 how far-away Galilee used to yield rest and 

 inspiration to the homeless Man of Sor- 

 rows. The marshes of Glynn inspired 

 Lanier of fragrant memory, and Walden 

 Pond through Thoreau was the means of 

 enriching our literature forever. 



The plains seem dreary to some eyes; 

 but I must think that such eyes look out of 

 darkened souls wherein the sense of beauty 

 lies dead or unawakened. Twenty-five 

 years of my boyhood were spent upon the 

 plains. Even in those days of immaturity 

 they seemed beautiful to me; and I will 

 always remember with what poignant joy 

 that beauty all swept back over my soul, 

 when, after some years of wandering, I 

 suddenly found myself once more in the 

 center of the world, with the flat unbroken 

 land stretching out everywhere to kiss the 

 shimmering horizon. When the plains used 

 to be lighted up at night with miles on 

 miles of prairie fires, that was almost the 

 sublimest sight of a lifetime. I never saw 

 the Sahara, but I should like to. That, too, 

 must be magnificent, in sun or in storm. 



And so whether it be the great moun- 



51 



