of Italy. It was glorious spring weather; a few white
clouds floated amid the blue, and the earth had an intoxicating
fragrance. Then first did I know myself for a sun-worshipper. How had I
lived so long without asking whether there was a sun in the heavens or
not? Under that radiant firmament, I could have thrown myself upon my
knees in adoration. As I walked, I found myself avoiding every strip of
shadow; were it but that of a birch trunk, I felt as if it robbed me of
the day's delight. I went bare-headed, that the golden beams might shed
upon me their unstinted blessing. That day I must have walked some
thirty miles, yet I knew not fatigue. Could I but have once more the
strength which then supported me!

I had stepped into a new life. Between the man I had been and that which
I now became there was a very notable difference. In a single day I had
matured astonishingly; which means, no doubt, that I suddenly entered
into conscious enjoyment of powers and sensibilities which had been
developing unknown to me. To instance only one point: till then I had
cared very little about plants and flowers, but now I found myself
eagerly interested in every blossom, in every growth of the wayside. As
I walked I gathered a quantity of plants, promising myself to buy a book
on the morrow and identify them all. Nor was it a passing humour; never
since have I lost my pleasure in the flowers of the field, and my desire
to know them all. My ignorance at the time of which I speak seems to me
now very shameful; but I was merely in the case of ordinary people,
whether living in town or country. How many could give the familiar name
of half a dozen plants plucked at random from beneath the hedge in
springtime? To me the flowers became symbolical of a great release, of a
wonderful awakening. My eyes had all at once been opened; till then I
had walked in darkness, yet knew it not.

Well do I remember the rambles of that springtide. I had a lodging in
one of those outer streets of Exeter which savour more of country than of
town, and every morning I set forth to make discoveries. The weather
could not have been more kindly; I felt the influences of a climate I had
never known; there was a balm in the air which soothed no less than it
exhilarated me. Now inland, now seaward, I followed the windings of the
Exe. One day I wandered in rich, warm valleys, by orchards bursting into
bloom, from farmhouse to farmhouse, each more