Chapter 4
NATURE: PROTOTYPE OF THE DIVINE
In happy hours nature appears to us one with art;
art perfected, --the work of genius.
Nature is art for man.
Man is art through nature.
A man walks alone through a grove of trees. He is surrounded at every side by things which he has not made and which have a life and beauty of their own: birds, plants, streams, clouds and hills. These things together contribute to an idea which he calls nature. He receives them with his senses and is flooded with manifold perceptions of colour, fragrance, touch, taste, and sound. It is more than a sensory experience, however, for he comes to read in these forms of nature his own inner self. The dark, brooding clouds would seem to correspond to his moods of despair, the unfolding petals of the lotus in the pond describe the fulness of his heart and the soaring flight of the bird reflects the sudden inrush of inspiration in his own being. In every ambience of nature he recreates himself and discovers the secret principles of his life. Conversing with nature in this profound and intimate way, he seems to breathe as one with it and the simple objects and forms around him grow to mean much more than they mean in themselves. They become resonant with significance and symbolic depth.
