Towards democracy

386 Towards Democracy

Matches somehow and interprets the whole of Nature

How from shoulder to foot of mountain and man alike the lines of grace run on;

How, as the Greeks dreamed, in rock and rill divinest human forms lie shrined, or in the wild woods lurk embosomed ;

And how at length and only in the loving union and uncoveredness of Man with Nature may either know or understand the other.

In a ScotcH-Fir Woon

N a Scotch-fir woodWhere the great rays of the low sun glanced through the trees, in open beauty under the shaggy green, Lighting stem behind stem in lofty strength interminable : And the wild sweet air ran lightly by, with warm scent of pine-needlesI heard a yoice saying:

© Man, when wilt thou come fit comrade of such trees, fair mate and crown of such a scene?

Poor pigmy, botched in clothes, feet coffined in boots, braced, stitched and starched,

Too feeble, alas! too mean, undignified, to be endured—

Go hence, and in the centuries come again!