ho think that a true enjoyment of the beauties of
nature, of natural scenery, and natural objects, generally, is a test
of the purity of principle or the delicacy of sentiment, any more than
I hold that a love of music is essential to domestic, social or
political virtue. The cultivation of the eye and the ear--or the
capabilities in those organs for cultivation--have more to do with all
this than many seem to allow; and men and women of the purest
principles, and the highest benevolence, may stand within the
loveliest scenes that nature has ever spread out, or may listen to the
most delicious music that art has ever prepared and performed, without
comprehending the beauties or the excellence of either, or imagining
that there is a moral test applied to them in these attractions.
Nevertheless, there is an enjoyment in such scenes and such sounds,
and those who are permitted to share therein have another life--or
such an additional enjoyment added to _that_ of ordinary minds, that
they seem to live more, if not longer, in such pleasures than the
common allotment; and none, I suspect, will doubt that the indulgence
of a taste for natural beauties tends to soften the mind, soothe the
passions, and thus elevate the feelings and aspirations.

If I have less of the power of appreciating and enjoying rural sights
and rural sounds, if there is vouchsafed to me a _limited_ capability
of understanding and delighting in the beauties of the field and wood,
of gathering pleasure from the outstretched loveliness of land and
stream, still I thank God; and I speak with reverence, I thank God
that I have _some_ pleasure in these things; and more than that, I
have a certain fixed delight in noticing the enjoyment which the
better formed and higher cultivated mind derives from what a good
Providence has poured out for the decoration of the earth. Humble as
this faculty may be, which is partly exercised through intermediate
objects, I find it useful to me, and, still better, I find that it
ministers to other pleasures--to enjoy what is lovely is a high and a
cultivated talent--the enjoyment of that loveliness with another
kindred or more elevated mind is a yet higher attainment, as the
performance of _concerted_ music is more difficult and more gratifying
than a simple solo.

Rarely within my recollection, and that is as inclusive as the
remembrance of almost any around me, rarely has an autumn been more
delightful than that which has ju