o "satisfy
themselves." It is the curse of every evil nature and evil creature to
eat and _not_ be satisfied. The words of blessing are, that they shall
eat and be satisfied; and as there is only one kind of water which
quenches all thirst, so there is only one kind of bread which
satisfies all hunger--the bread of justice or righteousness; which
hungering after, men shall always be filled, that being the bread of
Heaven; but hungering after the bread or wages of unrighteousness,
shall not be filled, that being the bread of Sodom. And in order to
teach men how to be satisfied, it is necessary fully to understand the
art of joy and humble life--this, at present, of all arts or sciences,
being the one most needing study. Humble life; that is to say,
proposing to itself no future exaltation, but only a sweet
continuance: not excluding the idea of foresight, but wholly of
fore-sorrow, and taking no troublous thought for coming days; so also
not excluding the idea of providence or provision, but wholly of
accumulation;--the life of domestic affection and domestic peace, full
of sensitiveness to all elements of costless and kind
pleasure;--therefore chiefly to the loveliness of the natural world.

62. We shall find that the love of nature, wherever it has existed,
has been a faithful and sacred element of feeling; that is to say,
supposing all the circumstances otherwise the same with respect to two
individuals, the one who loves nature most will be always found to
have more capacity for _faith_ in God than the other. Nature-worship
will be found to bring with it such a sense of the presence and power
of a Great Spirit as no mere reasoning can either induce or
controvert; and where that nature-worship is innocently
pursued--_i.e._, with due respect to other claims on time, feeling,
and exertion, and associated with the higher principles of
religion,--it becomes the channel of certain sacred truths, which by
no other means can be conveyed.

63. Instead of supposing the love of nature necessarily connected with
the faithlessness of the age, I believe it is connected properly with
the benevolence and liberty[29] of the age; that it is precisely the
most healthy element which distinctively belongs to us; and that out
of it, cultivated no longer in levity or ignorance, but in earnestness
and as a duty, results will spring of an importance at present
inconceivable; and lights arise, which, for the first time in man's
history