Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 218, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 September 1918 — SOLACE THAT NEVER FAILS [ARTICLE]

SOLACE THAT NEVER FAILS

■Best Antidote for Caret and Worries Found In the Solitude of the Wilderness. What medicine In the quietude of nature ! After a day of feverish struggle to make the discords of human endeav- ’ or harmonize with the soul’s aspirations for tranquillity and peace go into a bit of natural woods bordering a calm, shadow-tinted lake and in the twilight silence listen to the innumerable whisperings of the leaves. Stretch your weary body, on the green sward and with an ear to the earth note the quick bursting of the roots of those tiny blades through the compressed ground. Catch the quick changes Jn light and shadow of the breeze-stirred branches overhead. High over the water a swallow darts and salW, emblem of faith, against a tender sky. The waters lap the shore with accents of pure Joy. Cool, soft winds steal through your hair and caress your cheek like the fingers of dear companions gone before. In such sweet solitude all cares and worries fall into forgetfulness and their places are filled with gentle thoughts and fond remembrances. The harsh sounds of the busy day no longer assail the ear with their disturbing sequence. Nature is the only actor in this lovely scene and all her movements are full of gentle grace, all her sounds accord, one with the other, making a pleasant chorus, a “concord of sweet sounds,” that win your whole being to their melodious flow. Here you become one with the expanding sky, the reflecting water, the calm trees, the playful grasses. Something liberal takes possession of your heart and brain and soul and a great kindliness grows within. Humanity is softly transmuted Into an essence of brotherhood. No longer is your sight material, your senses go. The eye of the mind beholds a universe,of quiet cheer, peopled with lovers of truth. Nature has wrought a miracle. You are translated with all the hitherto distracted earth into a land of pure delight where no fault lies and all eyes look unclouded into other eyes that look and beam again. The glory of that dreamed-of heaven lies In that little lonely nook beside the placid lake.