212 IRature StuMes in Berl^sbire* 



them, realise them, carry them away in memory. 

 People who have the right to speak on the subject 

 say that it is necessary to live for weeks in the pre- 

 sence of Mount Washington or the Matterhorn, before 

 one can feel that he begins to understand them. 



The Wife. What you say is borne out, too, by 

 the lives of those who live long in the midst of such 

 scenery. It must be that it makes its impression. 

 Else why is it that when the mountaineer goes away 

 from his hills he misses them, longs for them so, 

 loves to go back to them. The same is true of the 

 dwellers by the sea or on the plain. It must be that 

 they unconsciously learn to love these grandeurs and 

 these beauties. Long years spent among them serve 

 to impress them deeply on the spirit. They enter 

 into the life. I am not sure, either, that the people 

 who live among these beauties are insensible to 

 them. Why do we say that ? 



Lisbeth. Isn't it because they never say anything 

 about them, in appreciation or in praise ? 



The Wife. That is just it. But impression and 

 expression are very different things ; and a good 

 many of us, 1 suspect, feel a great deal more than we 

 do or can tell. I do not care whether my children 

 grow up with the power to talk finely about nature 

 or not. But I do want them to feel finely its noble 

 influences. 



Adelaide. Yes, for nature is the great refiner ; 

 and the love of beauty in good hands ought to im- 

 part a grace and a delicacy to any life. We all need 



