When the tide recedes it pauses but a moment, and then the music of its
returning waves is heard along all shores, and its shining edges move
irresistibly on until they have bathed the roots of the solitary flower
on the highest Alp.
It is this divine method of growth which Nature opposes to our
mechanisms; it is this inexhaustible life, overflowing in
unconsciousness and boundless fulness, that she forever reveals. The
truth which underlies these two great facts needs no application to
human life. Blessed, indeed, are they who live in it, and have caught
from it something of the joy, the health, and the perennial beauty of
Nature.
Chapter VI
Earth and Sky
In nature, as in art, it is the sky which makes the landscape. Given
the identical fields, woods, and retreating hills, and every change of
sky, every modulation of light, will produce a new landscape; in light
and atmosphere are concealed those mysteries of colour, of distance,
and of tone which clothe the changeless features of the visible world
with infinite variety and charm. This fruitful marriage of the upper
and the lower firmaments is perhaps the oldest fact known to men; it
was the earliest discovery of the first observer, it still is the most
illusive and beautiful mystery in nature.
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