184 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 
souled devotion to nature, with unwearied knocking at her doors 
that she may grant to us some solution of her many mysteries? 
This may be said, and perhaps with the greatest justice. But 
nature is, as we have said, myriad-sided, and there are a thou- 
sand ways in which we may approach her. 
The artist has one method; helooks at her through the me- 
dium of his genius and transfers to canvas not only seascape or 
landscape, but also the emotions with which they are trans- 
figured for him— 
“the light that never was on sea or land.” 
The poet too has his approach and to him she furnishes mete.- 
phor and simile which give to his writings colour and life, which 
charge words and phrases with a power which strikes deep into 
the human heart, ' 
“Striking the electric chain wherewith we are darkly bound.” 
Many there are also to whom have been vouchsafed the poet’s 
mind the artist’s eye, but the gift of expression has been denied 
They see, they feel, they appreciate, and to them Nature has a 
power of strength and of healing. Again there are many who 
through love of the wild, delight in the bush, and in the shy 
creatures which inhabit it. These, prompted only by the interest 
which springs from sympathy, note, observe and store in their 
memories a wealth of knowledge which, alas, too often dies with 
them and is lost to the world for want of written record. We 
~ muy have met some of these, may have been privileged to hear 
the lore of some “out-back” natural naturalist, some “hatter” 
who by dint of living so long alone has made nature, animate 
and inanimate, fill the place of human companionship. 
Apart from these and from many others there is the approaci 
to nature of the true naturalist, of one who watches, who ob- 
serves, who notes, who puts observation to observation and 
record to record and thus comes to understand—ever so little— 
the meaning of what to the uninitiated seems a chaos. This 
true naturalist looks for no reward save that which comes from 
the satisfaction of the spirit of inquiry: It is enough for hima 
(or her) that he can add, even a mite to the sum of human know 
ledge, that he can show that even through seeming disorder and 
wanton waste, runs an order which is stupendous, and even ap- 
parent chance is based on eternal laws. We are naturalists, and 
this therefore is our work, our destiny. As field naturalists we 
have ample opportunity of doing really valuable work, nor is 
any one of our members so busy or so much of an amateur that he 
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