Page:The clerk of the woods.djvu/236

218 And within three days—I can hardly believe it—the old year will be done. So let it be. Its passing brings us so much nearer the grave; worse yet, perhaps, it leaves us with our winter's work half accomplished; but our eyes are forward. After all, our work is not important. We are twice too busy; living as our neighbors do, rather than according to the law of our own being; playing the fool (there is no fool like the busy one); selling our birthright for a mess of pottage. The great thing, especially in springtime, is to lie wide open to the life that enfolds us, while the "gentle deities" show us, for our delight,—

The lore of colors and of sounds, The innumerable tenements of beauty."

Yes, that is the wisdom we should pray for. The youngest of us will not see many springs. Let us see the most that we can of this one. So much there will be to look at! Now, of all times, we may say with one of old, "Lord, that I might receive my sight." What a new world we should find ourselves living in! I can hardly imagine it.