nature, or in religion. As a matter of fact the vital interest that
is taken in these subjects, except perhaps in games and sport, is
far below the interest that is expressed in them. A person who said
frankly that he thought that any of these subjects were
uninteresting, tiresome or absurd, would be thought stupid or
affected, even brutal. Probably most of the people who express a
deep concern for these things believe that they are giving
utterance to a sincere feeling; but not to expatiate on the
emotions which they mistake for the real emotion in the other
departments, there are probably a good many people who mistake for
a love of nature the pleasure of fresh air, physical movement, and
change of scene. Many worthy golfers, for instance, who do not know
that they are speaking insincerely, attribute, in conversation, the
pleasure they feel in pursuing their game to the agreeable
surroundings in which it is pursued; but my secret belief is that
they pay more attention to the lie of the little white ball, and
the character of bunkers, than to the pageantry of sea and sky.

As with all other refined pleasures, there is no doubt that the
pleasure derived from the observation of nature can be, if not
acquired, immensely increased by practice. I am not now speaking of
the pursuit of natural history but the pursuit of natural emotion.
The thing to aim at, as is the case with all artistic pleasures, is
the perception of quality, of small effects. Many of the people Who
believe themselves to have an appreciation of natural scenery
cannot appreciate it except on a sensational scale. They can derive
a certain pleasure from wide prospects of startling beauty, rugged
mountains, steep gorges, great falls of water--all the things that
are supposed to be picturesque. But though this is all very well as
far as it goes, it is a very elementary kind of thing. The