xxiv
PREFACE
for metaphysics; but adventure and sport, "Crusoe" and "Walton," have always their legions of enthusiastic followers.
It is easy to go into heroics about the art and its poetry when it is scarcely needed; for of all things it is the homeliest, preferring a russet gown to gay raiment. Yet still, I dare to think, it is a thing of abiding charm; and whatever hard places we travel in, it will be at hand for our refreshment. For it has to do, not with passing fashions and outworn creeds, but with the great things of the world, — the return of spring, the stillness of summer weather, grey hills, clear waters, and the incommunicable freshness of the fields.
J. B.
