,
catching something of that state with which the more gifted are
indulged, when I was startled by the sound of footsteps upon the
carpet-like grass around me.

"Hardly looking for game here?" said the person inquiringly.

"And without dog and gun?" said I.

"There's not much game in these parts," said he.

"And yet I was hunting!" said I. "Hunting pleasure from the prospect."

"I do not derive much pleasure," said my companion, "from such
things. Almost all fields are alike to me. Generally they are places
for labor, or they lie between my residence and labor, and thus make a
toilsome distance."

"But do you not enjoy the pleasure of this scene? Do you not, while
looking abroad from some eminence, feel a sensation different from
what you experience while walking on the turnpike?"

"Most generally. I think there was once or twice a feeling came over
me here which I did not exactly understand."

"And when was that?"

"Always on Sunday morning, as I have been crossing the field to attend
service at the church yonder. I could not tell whether it was a sense
of relief from ordinary labor, or something connected with the service
in which I was about to join; but, certainly, the fields, and woods,
and water beyond, had a different appearance, and seemed to affect me
differently from their ordinary influence. Perhaps as these feelings
are recent, they may have sprung from another cause."

"If the beauties of nature, and the influence of religious aspirations
could not account for those feelings which you experienced, I can
scarcely tell whence you derived the sensation."

"I suppose that all beauties are not discernable at once, and our
sympathies are not all awakened by a single exhibition of what may be
productive of delight or sorrow. Whatever of pleasure I have derived
from the beauties observable from such places as this, are not
primarily referable to my own powers of application, but rather from
the lessons of another--lessons derived from a few words, and from
constant example."

"And, pray, what _example_ could open to you new beauties in a
landscape, or develop attractions in a scene which you had been in the
habit of seeing for many years?"

"I do not know that any one has taught me by word and example to see
from any point of observation, aught that I had not discerned before,
but it is certain that what was unnoticeable became an object of
contemplation, and points of the scenery have been made to