bare and the roan-tree was wonderful with its heavy scarlet cluster of
berries. And the sky was so blue, so blue, and the wood seemed so much
bigger, one could look so far between the trunks. And then of course
one could not help thinking that soon all this would be of the past.
Wood, field, sky, open air, and everything soon would have to give way
to the time of the lamps, the carpets, and the hyacinths. For this
reason the councilor from Cape Trafalgar and his daughter were walking
down to the lake, while their carriage stopped at the bailiff's.

The councilor was a friend of nature, nature was something quite
special, nature was one of the finest ornaments of existence. The
councilor patronized nature, he defended it against the artificial;
gardens were nothing but nature spoiled; but gardens laid out in
elaborate style were nature turned crazy. There was no style in
nature, providence had wisely made nature natural, nothing but
natural. Nature was that which was unrestrained, that which was
unspoiled. But with the fall of man civilization had come upon
mankind; now civilization had become a necessity; but it would have
been better, if it had not been thus. The state of nature was
something quite different, quite different. The councilor himself
would have had no objection to maintaining himself by going about in a
coat of lamb-skin and shooting hares and snipes and golden plovers and
grouse and haunches of venison and wild boars. No, the state of nature
really was like a gem, a perfect gem.

The councilor and his daughter walked down to the lake. For some time
already it had glimmered between the trees, but now when they turned
the corner where the big poplar stood, it lay quite open before them.
There it lay with large spaces of water clear as a mirror, with jagged
tongues of gray-blue rippled water, with streaks that were smooth and