Page:The Preservation of Places of Interest or Beauty, 1907.djvu/9

, merely because it has a history. Nevertheless in a very real sense, there is a similarity of feeling at the root of the interest felt by the antiquarian and the lover of nature. Both desire to perpetuate something which is apart from the life of the present, something which, on the one hand, speaks of the continuity of the human race, and on the other of the slowly acting giant forces of nature. The old city wall is not prized for its actual stones and mortar, but for the story it tells of the conditions of life in bye-gone times, of the habits and passions, thoughts and doings of our forefathers. And equally the beauty of hill and vale, wood and water, excites in us, not merely a delight in colour and form, but a subtle sense of the vastness and permanence of the physical world, of the weakness of man, of the late birth of the human race, and of the fleeting character of human life. Natural beauty, equally with historic association, stimulates the imagination and takes the beholder out of the petty cares and the small details of every-day existence. Thus, not only in England but in France and Germany, the movement for preserving interesting buildings and remains has extended to the preservation of natural landscape. France has its "Société pour la protection des paysages;" Germany talks of “Natur-Denkmäler," or natural monuments, and classes under the general term of "Denkmalpiege" the care both of historic monuments and of natural scenes and objects. America, which has a comparatively short written history of man, very appropriately gives thought to the preservation of Niagara, the Yosemite Valley, and the Yellowstone Park.

There is one branch of the care of historic monuments which I do not propose to include within the scope of my remarks. Much of the legislation in foreign countries which deals with places of interest, deals also with movable articles having an historic or artistic interest. Here, however, different considerations arise. Movable works of art,