To ride at noon
on the hottest days, when the whole earth is a-glitter with illusory
water, and see the cattle and horses in thousands, covering the plain
at their watering-places; to visit some haunt of large birds at that
still, hot hour and see storks, ibises, grey herons, egrets of a
dazzling whiteness, and rose-coloured spoonbills and flamingoes,
standing in the shallow water in which their motionless forms are
reflected. To lie on my back on the rust-brown grass in January and
gaze up at the wide hot whitey-blue sky, peopled with millions and
myriads of glistening balls of thistle-down, ever, ever floating by;
to gaze and gaze until they are to me living things and I, in an
ecstasy, am with them, floating in that immense shining void!
And now it seemed that I was about to lose it--this glad emotion which
had made the world what it was to me, an enchanted realm, a nature at
once natural and supernatural; it would fade and lessen imperceptibly
day by day, year by year, as I became more and more absorbed in the
dull business of life, until it would be lost as effectually as if I
had ceased to see and hear and palpitate, and my warm body had grown
cold and stiff in death, and, like the dead and the living, I should
be unconscious of my loss.
It was not a unique nor a singular feeling: it is known to other boys,
as I have read and heard; also I have occasionally met with one who,
in a rare moment of confidence, has confessed that he has been
troubled at times at the thought of all he would lose.
Pages:
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337