r small, is a universe that can never be fully
explored. And yet such is the perversity of human nature that we
know all countries better than our own; we travel everywhere
except at home. The denizens of the earth in their wanderings
cross each other en route like letters; all Europe longs to see
Niagara, all America to see Mont Blanc, and yet whoever sees the
one sees the other, for the grandeur of both is the same. It does
not matter whether a vast volume of water is pouring over the
sharp edge of a cliff, or a huge pile of scarred and serrated rock
rises to the heavens, the grandeur is the same; it is not the
outward form we stand breathless before, but the forces of nature
which produce every visible and invisible effect. The child of
nature worships the god within the mountains and the spirit behind
the waters; whereas we in our great haste observe only the outward
form, see only the falling waters and the towering peaks.

It is good for every man to come at least once in his life in
contact with some overpowering work of nature; it is better for
most men to never see but one; let the memory linger, let not the
impression be too soon effaced, rather let it sink deep into the
heart until it becomes a part of life.

Steam has impaired the imagination. Such is the facility of modern
transportation that we ride on the ocean to-day and sit at the
feet of the mountains to-morrow.

Nowadays we see just so much of nature as the camera sees and no
more; our vision is but surface deep, our eyes are but two clear,
bright lenses with nothing behind, not even a dry plate to record
the impressions. It is a physiological fact that the cells of the
brain which first receive impressions from the outward organs of
sense may be reduced to a condition of comparative inactivity by
too rapid succession of sights, sounds, and other sensations. We
see so much that we see nothing. To really see is to fully
comprehend, therefore our capacity for seeing is limited. No man
has really seen Niagara, no man has ever really seen Mont Blanc;
for that matter, no man has even fully comprehended so much as a
grain of sand; therefore the universe is at one's doorstep.

Nature is a unit; it is not a whole made up of many diverse parts,
but is a whole which is inherent in every part. No two persons see
the same things in a blossoming flower; to the botanist it is one
thing, to the poet another, to the painter another, to the child a
bit of bright