The Native Landscape Reader

The Outlook to Nature (1911)

51 LiBeRTy hyde BaiLey the outlook to nature (1911) thE REalm of thE CommonPlaCE I sat at the window of a hotel chamber, musing at the panorama that comes and goes in a thousand cities. There were human beings pouring in and out, up and down, as if moved by some restless and relentless machinery. Most of them were silent and serious and went quickly on. Some sauntered, and returned again and again as if looking for something that they did not expect to find. Carriages went up and down in endless pageant. Trolley-cars rushed by, clanging and grinding as they headlonged into the side streets. Meretricious automobiles with gorgon-eyed drivers whirred into the crowds, scattering the street crossers. Men passed with banners and advertising placards. Women paraded with streaming headgear and tempestuous gowns. A resplendent trumpeter rolled by in a tallyho. A hundred other devices to attract the eye and distract the ear came out and vanished; and yet no one stopped and no one seemed to care. Now and then a knot of men would form, as someone fell or as wagons collided; but the knots as quickly dissolved, and I knew that they were made up of the idle, who were amused for the moment and then floated on hoping for fresh entertainment. A hurdy-gurdy attracted only a bevy of scurrying children. A little girl with armful of newspapers moved in and out unnoticed. Suddenly a dog leaped down a flight of steps and was followed by two little children laughing and screaming. The dog felt his freedom and the children were in pursuit. The crowd stopped; the stern-faced men with high hats stopped; the well-dressed women stopped. Even a cabby pulled up his horse as the children dashed on the pavement after the escaping dog. Back and forth the children ran. On the far side of the street the people halted and took their hands out of their pockets. The children caught the dog and bundled it lovingly into the house; the crowd applauded, and dispersed. From The Outlook to Nature (New York: Macmillan, 1911), 1–49. 52 aPPRECiation of natuRE Every person seemed to be surprised that he had stopped. From my height I thought I could discern the reason for such curious phenomenon: in all the blare and blazonry of that tumultuous thoroughfare, this was the only episode of real spontaneous and exuberant human nature. All else was a kind of acting, and every person unconsciously recognized that it was so. I thought how rare must common naturalness be, and how much has it been driven from our lives! thE sPontanEous If a person has given any serious thought to public questions, he has his own contribution to make as to the causes of present conditions and the means of bettering them; so I make mine: what is now much needed in the public temper is such a change of attitude as will make us to see and appreciate the commonplace and the spontaneous, and to have the desire to maintain and express our youthful enthusiasms . And it is my special part to try, so far as possible, to open the eyes and the heart to nature and the common-day condition . My point of view is, of course, that of the countryman, and no doubt it has the countryman’s bias. So great has been the extension of knowledge, and so many the physical appliances that multiply our capabilities, that we are verily burdened with riches. We are so eager to enter all the strange and ambitious avenues that we overlook the soil at our feet. We live in an age of superlatives, I had almost said of super-superlatives, so much so that even the superlatives now begin to pall. The reach for something new has become so much a part of our lives that we cease to recognize the fact, and accept novelty as a matter of course. If we shall fail to satisfy ourselves with the new, the strange, and the eccentric, perhaps we shall find ourselves returning to the old commonplace and the familiar, and perhaps we shall be able to extract new delights from them because of the flights we have taken. Perhaps in their turn the commonplaces will be again the superlatives, and we shall be content with the things that come naturally and in due order. Certain it is that every sensitive soul feels this longing for something that is elemental...