CHAPTER XXII 



BOOKS AND NATURE 



Indoor studies and outdoor studies, are they 

 antagonistic or co-operative ? They are both, 

 anomalous as it may seem. The same is true in 

 a comparison of city culture and country culture. 

 Sometimes we observe the antagonism in the 

 same person. We may see in our best poets, now 

 the praise of books and now the praise of nature. 

 A double spirit, a mingling in one, comparable to 

 the mingling of the good and the bad of Steven- 

 son's " Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Wordsworth 

 first sounds the praises of books : 



"Yet it is just 

 That here in memory of all books which lay 

 Their sure foundations in the heart of man, 

 Whether by native prose, or numerous verse. 

 That in the name of all inspired souls — 



'Tis just that in behalf of these, the works, 

 And of the men that framed them, whether known 

 Or sleeping nameless in their scattered graves, 

 That I should here assert their rights, attest 

 Their honors, and should, once for all, pronounce 

 Their benediction ; speak of them as Powers 



i6s 



