OUT OF DOORS WITH NATURE. 
819 
they when we are untrue to ourselves — that the icy points 
dropt in gazing from their dim far homes into our souls, 
may freeze us into shudderings of awe! — ^but these Flow- 
Stars of Earth — they do not so ! They are no deadly-eyed 
and distant strangers — but with meek upward faces the}^ 
soothe us with soft eyes, and in the warm breath of sweetest 
odors, exhale their loving lives in tenderness for us ! This 
is the Astrology of Love tha,t cannot lie — the Alchemy, 
Elixir, Spell that shall renew our Youth forever. 
Then let us go forth — out of doors with Nature ! 
See how even art has sold her birthright! — for after 
all that has been said in a pompous criticism about Art, 
old mother nature sets our learning at nought, in " mere sim- 
plicity." The Human Artist, working under terror of the 
" Eules," attempts too much. He does not deign to look at 
Her as his great teacher, but turning in veneration towards 
some " Name" — weak as his own except in notoriety — he in- 
carnates nature in a school, and tamely strives rather to re- 
produce its errors — to perpetuate its dogmas — ^than to search 
for living truths himself. 
Thus he attempts too much — if he have one instinct of 
art in him — for in the effort to serve both nature and the 
"Master," he confounds the two — crowds and over works his 
picture, and utterly destroys all unity and directness of 
effect. 
The fact is, men are afraid of nature — so accustumed are 
they to the regalia of honor and of state, that her plainness 
repells them. They do not understand dignity or greatness, 
or nobilit}^, divested of and separate from the " tricksey 
pomps" of "ribbons," "garters," gew gaws, &c. 
They convey this morbid appetite into landscape uncon- 
sciously, and hence the horrid array of blazing pictures we 
find on the walls of our exhibitions. The scenes must be all 
Autumn — loaded with garish colors — trees like hay-ricks on 
fire ; or, Indian Summer — all haze — with red sunsets, like 
the flaming faces of market women from behind their Sun- 
