The Rambles of an Idler 



of an excited crowd. One calm man that knows 

 the secret of it all can hush a multitude by a 

 wave of the hand. This is one of the much 

 talked of "eternal verities," rarest of entities 

 in this world, but innumerable are the quips and 

 oddities that masquerade in their old clothes. 



Is it safe to interpret the grand volume of 

 song and sound that seems to shake the earth in 

 some such contemptuous manner? It is not an 

 uncommon setting-forth of its significance, for 

 Nature has not always been fairly dealt with. 

 I liken all I now hear to the steady hum of in- 

 dustry when men are at work. 



The world is now very busy; that out-door 

 world, I mean, which is blessedly non-human, 

 where two and two make four and sophistry is 

 never dreamed of. Nature's abiding-place. 

 Where creature looks creature in the face and 

 whether it is peace or war, there is no lying 

 about it. The permanent residence of His 

 Majesty, the Truth. 



What I would know is what in place of an al- 

 manac has wild-life to guide it? Wild-life, per 

 force of habit of expression; superlatively ra- 

 tional life in fact, another of the world's "eter- 

 nal verities." 



136 



