Art Out-of-Doors 
with a middle distance of woodland, and no 
background at all except the luminous sky. 
Of course some people are born with a 
deep and true love for Nature, but even in 
them I think this love does not show itself 
very early in life. In the majority of cases 
it seems to have been gradually developed 
rather than spontaneously felt. And, while 
no one not born with a poet’s soul can ever 
learn to feel Nature’s charms as a Corot or a 
Wordsworth did, anyone can learn to see 
them pretty clearly unless his mind is hope- 
lessly sluggish, desperately prosaic. 
How can such knowledge be acquired ? 
One way, as I have said in speaking of trees, 
is to study fine landscape-pictures. Anoth- 
er is the landscape-painter’s own way. The 
practice of painting, even in the most un- 
trained, amateurish fashion, may be an ex- 
cellent help toward the development of a 
love for Nature. If an intelligent young girl 
would spend an hour a day, during a single 
summer, faithfully trying to set down in paint 
what she sees in Nature — now a flower or a 
tree, now a bit of sunset-sky, a corner of 
3 2 ° 
