"For him who has the eye to see it, beauty, like thought, has an intrinsic right to a place among the realities of the world. He who demands to know why our children should be trained to an appreciation of the beautiful only proves by his question that he does not know what beauty is, that it is to him a mere name."

"In order to perform it, the school must rid its pupils of what Plato called the lie in the soul, self-deception, as to the ultimate goods of life. It must make them realize that not in their wealth, not in their social position, not in their reputation, but in themselves is to be found that which makes life a success or a failure."

"Every way I was happy, as idler, as painter, as poet. Forgotten impressions of childhood and youth came back to me-all those indescribable effects wrought by color, shadow, sunlight, green hedges, and songs of birds upon the soul just opening to poetry. I became again young, wondering and simple, as candor and ignorance are simple. I abandoned myself to life and to nature, and they cradled me with an infinite gentleness. To open one's heart in purity to this ever pure nature, to allow this immortal life of things to penetrate into one's soul, is at the same time to listen to the voice of God. Sensation may be a prayer, and self-abandonment an act of devotion.". AMIEL'S JOURNAL.

CHAPTER XVII

A PLEA FOR WALKING

In our outings the means as well as the end has value; the getting there as well as the things obtained or seen or studied. Let us, then, regard walking as a nature-study subject.

Diversified as is nature, so is the variety of her lovers' devotion. Her every phase has an admirer, from the largest to the smallest, from the most conspicuous to the least noticed, and from the most beautiful to the things called unattractive by those who do not love them.

St. Paul, writing of spiritual gifts, says:

"Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit.

"And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.

"And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.

"But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. . . .

"But all these worketh that one and selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will."

So in all the diversities of interests in the natural world there should be one spirit, that of walking, Indeed, I am so strongly convinced of this that I sometimes think there is but one thing, one gift, the ability to walk, and that all other matters are diversities of pretexts, excuses for going out to walk.

The sportsman carries gun and game bag; the fisherman fishing rod and tackle; the naturalist camera and collecting box; each has an all-day's tramp and comes home with but little to show for miles of walking. Tired out? Discouraged? Regretting the trip? Yes, tired out, yes, and tired with them, but not of them, but happy, even jubilant, and with full determination to go again as soon as possible. Was that one squirrel, one trout, one photograph, one specimen worth all the time and labor? If it was not, then we may well expect discouragement and regret. But these visible trifles were only souvenirs of the real thing, the walk. That was obtained in all its fullness, and that was happiness and an inspiration for another similar journey. Never mind the little excuses. Now that the real thing has been obtained in such fullness, the excuses are forgotten.

The Rev. Dallas Lore Sharp is delightfully

confidential and candid in exposing the mycologist's real motif.

us.

"And the collecting of mushrooms is, after all, their real value. Our stomachs are too much with It is well enough to beguile ourselves with large talk of rare flavors, high per cents of proteids, and small butcher's bills; but it is mostly talk. It gives a practical, businesslike complexion to our interest and excursions; it backs up our accusing consciences at the silly waste of time, with a show of thrift and economy; but here mushroom economy ends. There is about as much in it as there is of cheese in the moon. No doubt tons and tons of this vegetable meat go to waste every day in the woods and fields, just as the mycologists say; nevertheless, according to my experience, it is safer and cheaper to board at a first-class hotel, than in the wilderness upon this manna, bounty of the sky though it be.

"It is the hunt for mushrooms, the introduction through their door into a new and wondrous room of the out-of-doors, that makes mycology worthy and moral. The genuine lover of the out-of-doors, having filled his basket with fungi, always forces his day's gleanings upon the least resisting member of the party before he reaches home, while

he himself feeds upon the excitement of the hunt, the happy mental rest, the sunshine of the fields, and the flavor of the woods."

The more I observe my fellow enthusiasts in other departments of nature the more firmly am I convinced that this assertion applies equally well to them, and in full force, too.

Go on, happy mortal, in your innocent delusion. Dream of your diatoms, birds, snakes or boulders. They are only agents to entice you to the real thing, walking and its accompaniments. It is the accompaniments that give it the charm. These are not the minutiae of nature magnified into importance, nor yet the larger interests hampered within the folds of scientific environments. But you will, O scientist, artist, photographer, not go into the fields only to rake up the straws, but to look at the real things. Your soul will and does drink in the influence of things. You will walk in this paradise, and be happy, though perhaps you may be ignorant of the reason.

What a boon is walking to every child and youth. It is not only in our infancy that heaven lies about us, but through our youth. In the merry rambles of childhood, we get near to this paradise. It may be that later, as Colonel Thomas