THE LANDSCAPE BEAUTIFUL 



we get nearer to it, and know it more 

 intimately through daily association. Thus, 

 the landscape of Litchfield is better than 

 the landscape of Connecticut, and the hills 

 and meadows of my great-grandfather's 

 farm far better than all the rest of Litch- 

 field. Every old and real farm has its own 

 landscape, which is, indeed, its very physical 

 matter. It has its own stream, or hill, or 

 woodland, with fields, fences, sentinel trees, 

 and eternal stones. Here is where the 

 world begins to have a meaning. 



I have hinted that I think the Americzm 

 landscape the best in the world; but I must 

 be fair, and say that Europe has some 

 excellences, too. If one great merit can 

 be claimed above all others, it is that in 

 Europe men and women live more inti- 

 mately into the fields and hills than in 

 America. The hills along the Rhine are 

 molded into terraces by the hands and feet 

 of generations. And if the American sight- 

 seer, floating down the river on the Konigin 

 Victoria, thinks the terraces spoil the 

 spectacle, he should be reminded that the 

 landscape does not exist for him, but for 

 those who are born into it, and who live 

 and marry and die there. 



108 



