Plato, in his "Phædrus," pictures the two natures in man under the analogy of two horses, one black and raging, pulling him down; the other white and noble, with an upward look, and drawing him to pure and self-denying actions; both steeds harnessed to the same chariot while the man sits in the chariot driving. (Text.)
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NATURE, ENJOYMENT OF
One of the most interesting passages in
modern literary history is that in which
Audubon, the naturalist, met the sudden destruction,
by the voracity of rats, of the
treasures he had accumulated in fifteen years
of incessant exploration. At the shock of
what seemed the irremediable disaster, he
was thrown into a fever, which had well-*nigh
proved fatal. "A burning heat," as he
described it, "rushed through my brain; and
my days were oblivion." But as consciousness
returned, and the rally of nature fought
back the sudden incursion of disease, there
sang again through his wakening thoughts
the wild notes he had heard in the bayous
of Louisiana, the everglades of Florida, the
savannahs of the Carolinas, and the forests
that fringe the sides of the Alleghanies. He
saw again the Washington eagle, as it soared
and screamed from its far rocky eery. He
startled again, from her perch on the firs,
the brown warbler of Labrador. He traced
in thought the magic hues on crest and wing
that so often had shone before the dip of his
rifle. And the passion for new expeditions
and discoveries, arising afresh, was more to
him than medicine. In three years more, passed
far from home, he had filled once more the
despoiled portfolios; and at every step, as
he told his biographer, "it was not the desire
of fame that prompted him; it was his exceeding
enjoyment of nature!"—Richard
S. Storrs.
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Nature Malleable—See Conquest by Man.
Nature Merciless—See God, Not Nature.
NATURE'S AGGRESSIVENESS
Winthrop Packard, in "Wild Pastures," describes the way in which nature's wild growths obliterate the marks of human labor:
Let but vigilance relax for a year, a spring
month even, and bramble and bayberry,
sweet-fern and wild-rose, daring scouts that
they are, will have a foothold that they will
yield only with death. Close upon these will
follow the birches, the light infantry which
rushes to the advance line as soon as the
scouts have found the foothold. These entrench
and hold the field desperately until
pine and hickory, maple and oak, sturdy men
of the main line of battle, arrive, and almost
before you know it the farm is reclaimed.
The wilderness has regained its lost ground,
and the cosmos of the wild has wiped out
that curious chaos which we call civilization.
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NATURE'S ANTIDOTES
An army surgeon, discussing the nature of cholera and the sort of precautions to take against the plague, says:
Our greatest defense against this disease
is, as usual, provided by Nature herself.
These organisms can not live in an acid medium;
they soon perish in the stomach, when
exposed to the action of the gastric juice,
because of its acidity.
Thus is nature kindly. Thus is the
kindness to man of nature's God.
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NATURE'S CUNNING WORKS
Excellent natural pottery is manufactured
by nature in the case of a certain cactus.
Woodpeckers are apt to excavate nests in
the trunk and branches, and, in order that it
may protect itself against these incursions,
the plant exudes a sticky juice, which
hardens, forming a woody lining to the hole
made by the birds. Eventually the cactus
dies and withers away, but the wooden bowl
remains.
As a weaver, nature is an exceedingly neat worker. Certain tree-barks and leaves furnish excellent cloth, such as, for instance, the famous tapa cloth used in the South Sea islands.
Nature is also a glass-maker. By discharging lightning into beds of quartz sand she forms exquisite little pipes of glass.
Nature does a bit in the rope-making line, too. These products of her handicraft may
