e had no time for speech. There were no other travellers; everybody
seemed to be going in the opposite direction; and we were left to
undisturbed meditation. The route to the Forest is one of those open
secrets which whosoever would know must learn for himself; it is
impossible to direct those who do not discover for themselves how to
make the journey. The Forest is probably the most accessible place on
the face of the earth, but it is so rarely visited that one may go half
a lifetime without meeting a person who has been there. I have never
been able to explain the fact that those who have spent some time in
the Forest, as well as those who are later to see it, seem to recognise
each other by instinct. Rosalind and I happen to have a large circle
of acquaintances, and it has been our good fortune to meet and
recognise many who were familiar with the Forest and who were able to
tell us much about its localities and charms. It is not generally
known, and it is probably wise not to emphasise the fact, that the
fortunate few who have access to the Forest form a kind of secret
fraternity; a brotherhood of the soul which is secret because those
alone who are qualified for membership by nature can understand either
its language or its aims. It is a very strange thing that the dwellers
in the Forest never make the least attempt at concealment, but that, no
matter how frank and explicit their statements may be, nobody outside
the brotherhood ever understands where the Forest lies or what one
finds when he gets there. One may write what he chooses about life in
the Forest, and only those whom Nature has selected and trained will
understand what he discloses; to all others it will be an idle tale or
a fairy story for the entertainment of people who have no serious
business in hand.

I remember well the first time I ever understood that there is a Forest
of Arden, and that they who choose may wander through its arched aisles
of shade and live at their will in its deep and beautiful solitude; a
solitude in which Nature sits like a friend from whose face the veil
has been withdrawn, and whose strange and foreign utterance has been
exchanged for the most familiar speech. Since that memorable afternoon
under the apple trees I have never been far from the Forest, although
at times I have lost sight of the line which its foliage makes against
the horizon. I have always intended to cross that line some day and to
explore the Fo