They
are remnants of the home of man's fierce youth, still consecrated to
the genius of animal excitement and savage freedom; after all, not
the most ignoble qualities of human nature. Besides, there is no
better method of giving a living picture of a whole country than by
taking some one feature of it as a guide, and bringing all other
observations into harmony with that original key. Even in merely
scientific books this is very possible. Look, for instance, at Hugh
Miller's 'Old Red Sandstone,' 'The Voyage of the Beagle,' and
Professor Forbes's work (we had almost said epic poem) on 'Glaciers.'
Even an agricultural writer, if he have a real insight in him--if he
have anything of that secret of the piu nel' uno, 'the power of
discovering the infinite in the finite;' of seeing, like a poet,
trivial phenomena in their true relation to the whole of the great
universe into which they are so cunningly fitted; if he has learned
to look at all things and men, down to the meanest, as living lessons
written with the finger of God; if, in short, he has any true
dramatic power: then he may impart to that apparently muddiest of
sciences a poetic or a humorous tone, and give the lie to
Mephistopheles when he dissuades Faust from farming as an occupation
too mean and filthy for a man of genius.
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