Page images
PDF
EPUB

PART I

THE WORLD OF NATURE

God made all the creatures and gave them our love and our fear, To give sign we and they are his children, one family here.

-Robert Browning.

[graphic]

AUTUMN

[graphic][subsumed][merged small]

As long as man has lived on this earth, he has been powerfully influenced by the world of Nature. To tribesmen in very early times, fire seemed a mysterious spirit, willing to help man where rightly used; capable of destroying him and his property when enraged. One people had a legend that Prometheus, a friend of man, stole fire from heaven so that men might equal gods. The same mystery surrounded the movements of the heavenly bodies. Many ancient peoples worshiped the sun as a god-the source of light and life. The moon was a pale goddess, exerting wide influence on men and their fortunes. Through many centuries the stars were supposed to bring fortune or disaster. Indeed, the word "disaster" itself refers to evil stars. We still say, sometimes, "My stars!" or "My lucky star." Shakespeare speaks often of this influence of the stars upon men; and Napoleon, who lived only a century ago, believed implicitly in the influence of the stars upon his fortunes. Savage tribes, and ignorant men even of today, see in the appearance of comets portents of disaster. Panics are still known to occur in certain parts of the earth when there is an eclipse of the sun. The Teutonic tribes of northern Europe believed that thunder was caused by the hammer of Thor, one of their divinities; the ancient Greeks thought it was the voice of Jove; many Christian peoples, even, have regarded great storms as signs of God's anger.

In large part, these ideas and many others like them have been due to ignorance about Nature. Fire, lightning, eclipses, storms, earthquakes, the mystery of the sea-these were not

understood and therefore were thought to be caused by the gods. Many peoples have believed that even the kindly aspects of Nature were influenced by supernatural powers. There were divinities of the harvest, of the rain, of the months and seasons. The wood and the water were inhabited by deities of less importance. The origin of the flowers was explained by this religion of Nature. Thus men in all ages have felt the influence of Nature upon them and have sought to explain it, in art and song and story, as well as in religion.

We have won from Nature many of her secrets now. We have chained the lightning so that it pulls long trains of cars, puts the complicated machinery of a great factory in motion, performs more services in our daily lives than ever the genius called forth by Aladdin's lamp. We have learned the secrets of the air, so that we can project our thoughts through innumerable leagues, even without the use of wires. The deeds that the forces of Nature perform at man's bidding are so astounding that the stories of what ancient peoples thought their Nature gods could do seem small and insignificant. Even the imagination of man. has been surpassed by the wonders he has learned to perform.

Yet the influence of Nature upon our lives is none the less real, nor are her secrets all discovered. Part of our business in this life is to establish relations with the world in which we live —that is, to appreciate and learn how to enjoy the things that surround us. If we move into a big house set in the midst of a large plot of ground, we get acquainted with the rooms of this house, with the furniture, with its conveniences and inconveniences, with every part of the ground that surrounds the house, with the trees and flowers and birds and animals that are near us. The great world, into which we come when we are born, is such a house. It is not just a place for eating and sleeping and working and playing. There are people to get acquainted with. There is the body which is our personal house to get acquainted with. We must learn to find our way around. As we look out through the windows of our eyes we seek to find

our place in the world of Nature outside. If we look attentively we shall soon come to see that this world of Nature is full of many wonders. We shall see, for example, that animals have personalities like human beings. One may learn secrets of Nature from the brook, from the forest, from the birds. We use the conveniences that science has brought to us; we should also realize the wonder and magic of the world. Always there are the passing days with sunrise and high noon and the evening star. Always there is the magic of spring or of the day in June or of the first snowfall. And always there are living creatures about us, insects, and birds and animals and inhabitants of lake and sea. The world of Nature is full of life and mystery. Through science, and through what poets and other keen observers have set down for us in books, we shall be able to make our way about and to add beauty and interest to our lives.

The selections that follow are given you as guides to this exploration. First there is a little group of stories which will prove to you the truth of the statement that "animals have personalities like human beings." After that you will find selections about birds, giving some thoughts on the influence these children of Nature have upon the lives of men. For example, you will learn how an American poet, at a moment of great discouragement in his own life, was given new courage by the sight of a waterfowl following its sure course through the trackless air. This part of your book will also show you how the flowers and the trees and the changing seasons add to the charm and magic of Nature.

Some of these poems and stories interpret life, others merely express the beauty of our outdoor surroundings. As you read them, see if you can understand why it is that men "treasure" the poems of such writers as Bryant and Wordsworth and Tennyson.

In many of the selections in this part of the book you are dealing not with science, the knowledge of the facts of Nature as you get these facts from geography or botany or chemistry,

« PreviousContinue »