The Love of Nature 



Therefore, one who truly loves Nature 

 does not need what are commonly called 

 fine views ; he needs no great ranges of 

 mountains, picturesque stretches of rocky 

 coast, or outlooks over wide expanses of val- 

 ley, hill, and river. Every view not seriously 

 marred by some incongruous work of man 

 has its charm for his eyes. And he recog- 

 nizes, moreover, that a very fine view must 

 often be bought at the expense of other beau- 

 ties. If, for instance, there are mountains 

 around him, he cannot have that far, low 

 horizon-line v\^hich, stretching its mighty 

 curve at a seemingly immeasurable distance, 

 gives an unequalled sense of space, freedom, 

 and infinity. " I have never seen the sky 

 before," a painter once exclaimed who had 

 passed his life in hilly regions and now for 

 the first time stood in the flat, quiet country 

 near Cape Cod j I did not know that it was 

 so vast or so near or so round, or that there 

 were so many stars, or that a sight of them 

 all could be so magnificent. I never before 

 watched the moon come up from below the 

 earth instead of merely from behind the hills ; 

 and I never saw the whole of a sunset until 



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