From the beginning of the first article: WAYSIDE RAMBLES. LOOKING out of my study window one fair spring morning, I noticed a friend - a professional man - walking along the street, evidently taking his "constitutional." Having reached the end of the brick pavement, he paused, glanced around a moment undecidedly, and then, instead of walking out into the beckoning fields and woods, turned down another street which led into a thickly populated part of the city. Surely, I mused, we are not all cast in the same mould. ...
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From the beginning of the first article: WAYSIDE RAMBLES. LOOKING out of my study window one fair spring morning, I noticed a friend - a professional man - walking along the street, evidently taking his "constitutional." Having reached the end of the brick pavement, he paused, glanced around a moment undecidedly, and then, instead of walking out into the beckoning fields and woods, turned down another street which led into a thickly populated part of the city. Surely, I mused, we are not all cast in the same mould. While he carefully avoided going beyond the suburbs and the beaten paths, as if afraid he might soil his polished shoes, I should have plunged boldly into the country, "across lots," to find some sequestered nook or grass-grown by-way, "far from human neighborhood," to hold undisturbed converse with Nature. My friend's conduct, however, did not put me in a critical mood, but rather stirred some grateful reflections on the wise adaptation of all things in the world of being. How fortunate that men are so variously constituted! If some did not naturally choose the bustle and stir and excitement of the city, where would be our philanthropists, our Howards and Peabodys and Dodges? On the other hand, if others did not voluntarily seek quiet and solitude in Nature's unfrequented haunts, the world would never have been blessed with a Wordsworth, an Emerson, or a Lowell; and in that case, for some of us at least, life would have been bare and arid. It is true, we cannot accept Pope's dictum, " Whatever is, is right." We know that many things that are, are wrong; but doubtless more things in this paradoxical old world are right than moralists sometimes suppose. To the genuine lover of Nature, and especially to the lover of her unbeaten pathways, the ringing lines of Emerson come home with thrilling power: - "If I could put my woods in song And tell what's there enjoyed, All men would to my gardens throng, And leave the cities void." Yet I doubt if any spot in Nature's domain could be made so attractive as to overcome most persons' natural love of human association. Mayhap even if this could be done, it would not be desirable. Should all men hie to the woods and leave the cities void, it would spoil both the woods and the cities.
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Fair. Hardcover. No DJ. Text contains pencil marking. Covers show light edge wear with rubbing/light scuffing with a stain spot on rear. Binding loosening but still intact. Previous owner's name on end paper.; 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed! Ships same or next business day!
