inefficiency, no doubt, into the low-lying
vales, I have found them to be beautiful and interesting places, the
hedgerows full of flower and leaf, the thickets musical with the voices
of birds, the orchards loaded with fruit, the friendly homesteads rich
with tranquil life and abounding in quiet friendly people; and then the
very peaks themselves, past which my way occasionally conducts me, have
a beautiful solemnity of pure outline and strong upliftedness, seen from
below, which I think they tend to lose, seen from the summit; and if
I have spoken of the quieter joys, it is--I can say this with perfect
honesty--because I have been pleased with them, as a bird is pleased
with the sunshine and the berries, and sings, not that the passers-by
may admire his notes, but out of simple joy of heart; and, after all, it
is enough justification, if a pilgrim or two have stopped upon their way
to listen with a smile. That alone persuades me that one does no harm
by speaking, even if there are other passers-by who say what a tiresome
note it is, that they have heard it a hundred times before, and cannot
think why the stupid bird does not vary his song. Personally, I would
rather hear the yellow-hammer utter his sharp monotonous notes, with
the dropping cadence at the end, than that he should try to imitate the
nightingale.

However, as I have said, I am quite willing to believe that the critics
speak, or think they speak, in the interests of the public, and with a
tender concern that the public should not be bored. And I will take my
leave of them by saying, like Miss Flite, that I will ask them to accept
a blessing, and that when I receive a judgment, I shall confer estates
impartially.

But my last word shall be to my readers, and I will beg of them not to
be deceived either by experts or by critics; on the one hand, not to
be frightened away from speculating and reflecting about the possible
meanings of life by the people who say that no one under the degree of
a Bachelor of Divinity has any right to tackle the matter; and, on the
other hand, I would implore them to believe that a quiet life is not
necessarily a dull life, and that the cutting off of alcohol does not
necessarily mean a lowering of physical vitality; but rather that if
they will abstain for a little from dependence upon excitement, they
will find their lives flooded by a new kind of quality, which heightens
perception and increases joy. Of course souls will ach