is perhaps no loftier association in Nature than 

 contadt with the forest. It is the force of a tre- 

 mendous personality — calm, inspiring, majestic. 

 Like the sea, it is not to be grasped in its entirety, 

 and the mind responds to it, as some giant sugar- 

 pine to the wind. These sequoias, which may 

 easily be from two to four thousand years old> 

 have seen men come and go as so many squirrels, 

 or as bubbles on the stream; they have outlived 

 empires, and may again. 



As the forest inspires in sensitive minds the 

 religious sentiment, so does it impose upon all 

 alike, silence. Self-effacement is the law. Wild 

 animals merge into their environment and have 

 acquired protedtive coloration through force of 

 necessity. The Indian has come to imitate them; 

 it has become second nature to him to move 

 stealthily, to stand and sit immovable for long at 

 a time, to speak little. To the woodsman, silence 

 is more congenial than speech; his wood life has 

 made him alert ; he has the habit of listening, and 

 talk interferes. 



Another influence is for sanity. It cannot fail 

 to communicate a little of its imperturbable calm, 

 that stable equilibrium of the granite ledge and 



187 



