NATURE S APPEAL. 
45 
instincts are dominant, he is more or less possessed by them ; 
and as there is no room for feelings of gentleness and pity he is 
often wrongly accused of cruelty. But these instincts frequently 
lead him irresistibly to the study of Natural History. As manhood 
comes on they often die away or are only occasionally revived. 
Reason becomes more prominent and instinctive life dwindles. 
But the love of Nature of the kind I am speaking of to-night is 
most marked in boyhood and youth. It is only too evident that 
however much we may reverence and admire the works of Nature, 
in manhood, the real passion begins early in life, and tends to 
decay as the years bring their inevitable changes. 
Development shows us, in fact, that a deep impression is made 
on our physical frames by the forms of animal life through which 
we have been evolved ; the body remembers these changes. We 
may therefore infer that our nervous systems are also deeply 
impressed by the changes through which they have evolved, and 
in the same way remember these changes, however much they may 
appear to be forgotten. Nature-worship, early savage beliefs and 
superstitions, hunting, associations connected with the chase and 
in the killing of prey for food, nocturnal habits, and many other 
forgotten impressions are revived in us at certain times in our 
life, and constitute, in my opinion, that mysterious love of nature 
which is in many people a great compelling force, connected 
with feelings which are incorporated with our very being. 
Real love of Nature, therefore, is, I say, like love of poetry, an 
instinct, and is innate. You may encourage it, develop it, nurture 
it, but you cannot make it, and it is never acquired. 
I said ''like poetry ; " and before ending this paper I should 
like to say a word or two on this point. It is difficult to separate 
the love of Nature as I have endeavoured to describe it to-night from 
the love of Nature which is so strong in many great poets. Indeed, 
one may go further, I think, and say that the real poetic instinct, 
meaning by that the innate love of and power of appreciating good 
poetry, are very similar. Both are in-born, neither can be acquired ; 
both develop early in life and tend to diminish as years pass by 
in most cases. Both are found independently of any special kind 
of mental endowment, and both, I believe, are intimately bound 
up with primary instincts. To both, except amongst the lucky 
few, may be applied the lines of Wordsworth : — 
"The youth who daily further from the East 
Must travel, still is Nature's priest, 
And by the vision splendid 
Is on his way attended ; 
At length the man perceives it die away 
And fade into the light of common day." 
In conclusion, it might be urged that any attempt to show that 
such high feelings as the love for Nature and the love for poetry 
are instincts derived from lower grades of ancestors is sacrilegious 
and debasing. But I think, on the contrary, that such an ex- 
planation rather ennobles than demeans. The power of reason is 
a glory to man, but our instincts are equally the result of the 
