' That is
the text, so to speak, of the present essay. This discipline in
scenery, it must be understood, is something more than a mere walk
before breakfast to whet the appetite. For when we are put down in
some unsightly neighbourhood, and especially if we have come to be
more or less dependent on what we see, we must set ourselves to hunt
out beautiful things with all the ardour and patience of a botanist
after a rye plant. Day by day we perfect ourselves in the art of
seeing nature more favourably. We learn to live with her, as people
learn to live with fretful or violent spouses: to dwell lovingly on
what is good, and shut our eyes against all that is bleak or
inharmonious. We learn, also, to come to each place in the right
spirit. The traveller, as Brantome quaintly tells us, 'FAIT DES
DISCOURS EN SOI POUR SOUTENIR EN CHEMIN'; and into these discourses
he weaves something out of all that he sees and suffers by the way;
they take their tone greatly from the varying character of the scene;
a sharp ascent brings different thoughts from a level road; and the
man's fancies grow lighter as he comes out of the wood into a
clearing.
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