The Love Of Nature

An observor of human nature as dovelopod in the average American woman thinks tliat she is not a lover ot' nature. This person says that last summur he Bpont gomé montha in a neighborhood so iiimcd tor its landscnxe beauty tbat it was, at the time, visited by hnndreds of strangers. Notwithstanding the fact that thore were the most inviting groves, ravines, and mountains on all sides, far and noar, that the tcraperature was gonerally eool, and the walks in several directions not at all diffieult, it was rare to seo woinon on foot a mile away from tho houses at which they were staying ; rare to meet them out-of-doors at all dressed otherwise than as for churoh or a shopping expedition in Broadway. In their driviug and sailing, it was obviously the social opportunity, not the scenory, that was sought. A llower in the grass, a bunch ot' ash-keys, a birch trunlt, the balk of which suggested the making of a house ornament, the most commonplace objeets thus associated with indoor life, would íit once take, and complctely withhold attention from the finost view. During the same summcr, he says he also saw seven car-loads of pfioplo wait at Suspension Bridge, tho greatêr part of the time in their seats, for half an hour of a fine autumn afternoon, but two of tho whole number, and these men, taking trouble to step the length of the train ahoad, where, instoad of the gloom of the station-house, there was a view that would repay a voyage a jross tho Atlantic. Not one in a hundred of the women who can command a carriage in the Central Park, ho s ïvs, has cvor been in the Kamblc ; not one 'in a thousand has cared to walk in it twice. This lack of interest in nature is not aften found in Europe except among the lowest peasantry. The vulgarest Englishwoinen makc at least an uffort to appear superior to it, and they cannot do this without beneflting their children. At places of resort in Great Britain and Germany, which may be compared with that we have referred to, go whero you wil] within a day's walk, you always find scores of women and girls, many of them showing by their attitude and occupation that they are not only really enjoyirtg but studying nature with earnestness and doliberation. If there is such a. defoct, how it is to be accounted for ? We are inclined to think that tho too cxelusively indoor life, with intervals of church, lecturo-rooin and street, to which the botter part of our women have been hitherto led, tends to disqualify them for obsorving truly, and consequently for eujoying, the beauty of nature on a largo scale. With constant training of his taculties, no artist feels that lie can appreoiate ov f ully enjoy a landscape the lirst timo or tho iirst hour that he looks upon it.