NATURE AND THE CITY. 



"Tend me my birds, and bring again 

 The brotherhood of woodland life, 

 Co shall I wear the seasons round, 

 A friend to need, a foe to strife. 



"Keep me my heritage of lawn, 

 And grant me. Father, till I die, 

 The fine sincerity of light 

 And luxury of open sky. 



"So, learning always, may I find 



My heaven around me everywhere. 

 And go in hope from this to Thee, 

 The pupil of Thy country air." 



It was the fond belief of Richard Jefferies that 

 some day Nature should have perpetual, constant in- 

 fluence upon the life of man, that man's life should 

 always be becoming like Nature's. The sooner men 

 learn to love the simplicities of the country the healthier 

 will their own lives become, and the better and more 

 wholesome influence, therefore, will they themselves 

 have in the world. In turning from the distraction of 

 a life of artificial stimulus to the revelation of the fields, 

 what do we find, says Jefferies? "To be beautiful and 

 to be calm, without mental fear, is the ideal of 

 Nature." 



So, in the city, I live over again the old life of the 

 fields, wandering among the pastures, and by the side 

 of clear, rippling brooks, and under the beeches. And 

 in the dust and rumble and whirl of the city I can 

 remember the ideals of life that I found out there, 

 among the mullein stalks and sweet green grass, and 

 I can live better for them, and can try to have Nature 

 transformed into my human life. Like Jefferies, I may 



