The Native Landscape Reader

“The Love of Nature” (1892)

40 chaRLes spRagUe saRgeNT aNd wiLLiaM aUgUsTUs sTiLes the love of nature (1892) One of the noticeable characteristics of this century is a growing love of natural scenery, but it may be questioned whether the love of nature is also growing, for a distinction must be made between the two. The first is a simple emotion—an instinct rather than a faculty—and, like all primitive instincts, it lies at the very foundation of being, having its roots somewhere in that mysterious region below consciousness . Perhaps it is stronger among the savage than it is among the civilized races of the world, but it is yet the birthright of every healthy child. The appreciation of natural scenery, on the other hand, is a complex emotion which involves thought, memory and imagination, and as it rarely manifests itself in childhood it probably did not exist in the childhood of the race. Wherever this appreciation is found, whether among modern nations, among the Hebrews as indicated in their literature, or among the Greeks and Romans, as is evident from the skillful way in which their architectural creations were placed with reference to their natural surroundings, it is the outcome of an advanced, perhaps of a decaying, civilization. The towering mountain stirs the imagination of the boy, but it is to deeds of exploration and adventure . The dense forest lures him, but its chief attraction is the game it covers. The brook which sparkles through the meadows delights him, because it turns his water-wheel or excites his hope as an angler. And yet, blind as he may seem to the grandeur of the one or the beauty of the others, mountain, grove and stream, each plays its part in molding the boy’s taste and character, and in after years he will be drawn to them by a deeper love, because they are inseparably blended with the careless happiness of childhood and youth. It is through some experience like this that the race has passed. Earth first ministers to man’s necessities; in so doing it develops his faculties and awakens new powers, until at last, when he has gained From Garden and Forest, July 20, 1892, 337–38. thE lovE of natuRE 41 dominion over it, the ability to discern its beauty comes with the leisure to enjoy it. The pleasure which springs from the contemplation of a beautiful landscape differs in kind with each spectator. It may have no deeper source than the mere love of beauty, and it is then refreshing to the jaded spirit simply because the beauty is pure and appeals to no sordid or material interest. But when to the beauty of a landscape is added the charm of romantic and historic association, the pleasure it awakens is lifted above the region of the purely sensuous into the realm of sentiment and imagination. To the man of religious spirit, to whom the visible universe is but the thought of God made manifest, the mountain gloom and the mountain glory speak first of the majesty and dominion of the Most High; while the smiling landscape, with its suggestion of happy homes and sheltered lives, brings tender thoughts of Him who notes even the sparrow’s fall. Among the same scenes the man of science , if he has not sacrificed all the poetry in his nature in the search after material truth, will be lost in wonder that the tumultuous and conflicting forces which have lifted the mountains from the depths of the sea and crowned them with everlasting frost can yet in obedience to the same immutable laws subdue their might to offices of tender grace, can stoop to paint the lily and add perfume to the violet. And so to each the landscape has its mission; to the dilettante it brings a fresh sensation; to the man of feeling a noble emotion; to the man of religion, thoughts of devotion and gratitude; to the man of science, reverent wonder at the mystery and majesty of natural law. The love of nature, at first an instinct, springs from a deeper source than the admiration of scenery, and it may, when disciplined and chastened, awaken a still more profound delight. The heaven which lies about us in our infancy may be at first only a dim consciousness of the universal life of nature, that life which throbs in every tree and shrub, the instinct in every clod “which comes to a soul in grass and flowers.” It may...