nature's calm 113 



fields; at each step you meet a new 

 circumstance and a different idea is 

 forced upon you. In the woods you 

 are led by a strange leaf, a new flower, 

 a mossed stone, — in themselves trifles, 

 — into infinite mental detail. The 

 flight of a bird opens vista upon vista, 

 until you cease to follow, cease even 

 to absorb, but are both possessed and 

 absorbed by the power of Nature. 

 Beauty becomes almost an oppression, 

 and the sun-fed colour blinding, the 

 sense of personal littleness humbling. 

 How can we realize it all, how can we 

 arrange ourselves in relation to it and 

 interpret it rightly? There is so much 

 to see, so much to learn, and so little 

 time between the first consciousness of 

 the eye and its closing. 



Night comes: a boundary is fixed 

 above and around us; the horizon draws 

 nearer ; we are no longer at large, but 



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