The Love of Nature 



hand has not obliterated Nature's intentions, 

 so devoid of attraction that the sensitive eye 

 and mind cannot enjoy them keenly. 



Admiration, says a French writer on art, 

 is the active, Eesthetic form of curiosity." 

 And this means that he who really admires 

 the works of God will be lovingly curious 

 about the hyssop on the wall as well as about 

 the cedar of Lebanon, and will see more to 

 please him in a rough bit of pasture-land 

 than the average person sees in a whole fertile 

 valley. Who can love Nature better than 

 the landscape-painter, spending his whole 

 life in the effort to transfer her features to 

 his canvas ? But no one is less in need 

 than the landscape-painter of what is called 

 scenery. It is not he who greatly prefers 

 the canon of the Yellowstone to the banks of 

 the little river near at hand. When he is 

 brought face to face with scenic grandeurs 

 he appreciates them more keenly than any- 

 one else, but he gladly comes back to his 

 quiet plains, his placid pools, his little forest- 

 glades. Nor is it merely because these 

 things are better fitted for painting than 

 grander things. Any little corner of the 



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