Of Walks And Waliking Tours - An Attempt To Find A Philosophy And A Creed

OF WALKS AND WALKING TOURS An Attmfit toJind a Philosophy artd a Creed - 1914 - PREFACE THE writing of this little book has given me a great deal of pleasure. That is why I hope that, here and there, it may give pleasure to others. And yet it was not an easy task. Natures lessons are hard to learn. Harder still is it to translate Natures lessons to others. Besides, the appeal of atre is to the Emotions and words are weak things save in the hands of a great Poet by which to convey or to evoke emotion. Words seem to be the vehicles rather of ratiocination than of emotion. Is not even the Poet driven to link words to music And always Ze mot juste, the exact word, is so difficult to find Yet found it must be if the appeal is to avail. . If, in these pages, there are scattered speculations semi-mystical, semi-intellig- ible, perhaps even transcending the boun- daries of rigid logic, I must simply aver that I put in writing that only which was given me to say. How or whence it came, I do not know.-And this, notwithstand- ing or, perhaps, in a way, corroborative of my own belief that no thought is auto- genous, but has parents and a pedigree. I have tried, quite humbly, to follow, as motto, the sentence chosen from Spinoza. Yet, with that sentence always should be 1 read this other, taken from Pascal La akrfii2re ddmarche de Za raison, cest de reconnaitre guit y a une injrzitd de doses qui b ursent.-Always emotion, imagination, feeling, faith, try to soar above reason and always they feel the inadequacy of words. I have incorporated in this book some parts of my Two Country Walks in Canada9-now long out of print itself comprising an article from The Nineteenth Century and another fromBZackwoods also with the permission of the editor an article in The Atlantic Month Magazine and Sections 22 and 23 first appeared in The Canadian Magazine. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. GOLF AND WALKING I 11. THE ESSENCE OF A WALK . 5 111. NOTABLE WALKERS . 9 IV. MY EARLIEST WALKS 15 V. INDIA 17 VI. ENGLISH BYWAYS . 21 VII. A SPRING MORNING IN ENGLAND . 25 VIII. AUTUMN REVERIES . . 29 IX. SPIRITUALITY OF NATURE . 34 X. PRACTICAL TRANSCENDENTALISM . 40 XI. SPRING IN CANADA . 45 XII. AUTUMN IN CANADA . 53 XIII. WINTER IN CANADA. 59 XIV. THE MOOD FOR WALKING . 72 XV. EVENING MEDITATIONS 78 XVI. THE UNITY OF NATURE . 91 XVII. THE INSTINCT FOR WALKING . 103 vii CONTENTS CHAPTER XVIII. A WOEFUL WALK XIX. AUTUMN IK CANADA AGAIN XX. THE WALKING TOUR . q XXI. THE TRAMPS DIETARY ., XXII. PRACTICAL DETAILS . XXIII. THE BEAU.TY OF LANDSCAPE XXIV. WARNINGS TO THE OVER-ZEALOUS XXV. HOW THAT ALL INFINITE POINTS TO THE XXVI. THE PLEASURES OF WALKING . . . XXVII. Is WALKING SELFISH XXVIII. THE PBAN OF BEING . . PAGE 105 OF WALKS AND WALKING TOURS MANY are the indictments which are brought against Golf that it is a deplor- able waster of time that it depletes the purse that it divorces husband and wife that it delays the dinner - hour, freckles fair feminine faces, upsets domestic arrangements, and unhinges generally the mental balance of its devotees. Yet perhaps to each of such charges Golf can enter a plea. It repays expenditure of time and money with A interest in the form of health and good spirits. If it acts the part of co-respondent it is always open to the petitioner to espouse the game. If it keeps men and women away from work and home, at least it keeps them out on the breezy links and dispels fora time the cares of the office or the kitchen. If it tanswell, it tans, and a tanned face needs no paint, and is, moreover, beautiful to look upon...