THE LANDSCAPE BEAUTIFUL 



the little village half hidden ctmong the 

 trees fills our minds with thoughts of the 

 peaceful, busy human lives centered there; 

 the village church, with its aspiring steeple, 

 calls on us to remember the worship of 

 God, and we wonder if He, too, is not in- 

 stantly looking down on the beautiful world 

 that He has made and thinking of those 

 who have purposed thus to praise Him. 



If the landscape happens to be one 

 with which we are familiar, the associa- 

 tions are multiplied a hundred-fold, or a 

 thousand-fold. And if it happens, — oh, 

 rare joy! — that we come back after years 

 of separation to a landscape once dear and 

 familiar, then, indeed, the tide of recollec- 

 tions may sweep us almost away, and the 

 exaltation of it all is almost too painful to 

 bear. Under such circximstances more 

 than one strong man has given way to 

 tears. When the army of the defeated Csn-us 

 came back from its long and heartrending 

 campaign in Persia, the homesick soldiers 

 fell down and wept when, from the top of 

 a hill, they caught the first view of the sea. 



We have seen that the landscape is 

 beautiful. Its beauty is of the same sort 

 that we find in music or sculpture, — ^that 



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