N 
II 
ATURE is not often so 
companionable to the 
higher moods, so indifferent to 
the lower needs, as in this noble 
country, where the land shapes 
itself into such sublime pictures 
and yields so reluctantly its mod- 
icum of grain. It was John 
Foster's fate to be alone in his fel- 
lowship with Nature, while all his 
neighbours were righting the stub- 
born fields inch by inch. It was 
enough for him that such minis- 
tration was made to his spirit ; he 
was glad that Nature did not serve 
[13] 
