A boy has to frown and study, and then does not grasp what long
years mean. The various hues of the petals pleased without any knowledge
of colour-contrasts, no note even of colour except that it was bright,
and the mind was made happy without consideration of those ideals and
hopes afterwards associated with the azure sky above the fir-tree. A
fresh footpath, a fresh flower, a fresh delight. The reeds, the grasses,
the rushes--unknown and new things at every step--something always to
find; no barren spot anywhere, or sameness. Every day the grass painted
anew, and its green seen for the first time; not the old green, but a
novel hue and spectacle, like the first view of the sea.
If we had never before looked upon the earth, but suddenly came to it man
or woman grown, set down in the midst of a summer mead, would it not seem
to us a radiant vision? The hues, the shapes, the song and life of birds,
above all the sunlight, the breath of heaven, resting on it; the mind
would be filled with its glory, unable to grasp it, hardly believing that
such things could be mere matter and no more. Like a dream of some
spirit-land it would appear, scarce fit to be touched lest it should fall
to pieces, too beautiful to be long watched lest it should fade away.
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