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 which, 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 / 9 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 ; “ 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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