Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/322

288 one may enter with full blessing into her sanctuary.

In Thoreau's writings are a few suggestions regarding the relation of nature to art, as well as to science. This vast, unfailing fount must be the true source of all inspiration for artists, poets, musicians, orators, and moralists. With scorn he mentions the restricted scope of art in his own day and country, an art which "cares little about trees and much about Corinthian columns." As often happened, while he deplored narrowness, he was himself guilty of this trait in his judgment on many of the subjects of past history and current study. In the main, however, he prophesied some of the later tendencies in art, and the "return to nature" for theme and color. The true artist will describe the most familiar objects with a zest and vividness of imagery "as if he saw it for the first time." In illustration of this text, he wrote the glowing vision of changing tints:—"Nature has many scenes to exhibit, and constantly draws a curtain over this part or that. She is constantly repainting the landscape and all surfaces, dressing up some scene for our entertainment. Lately we had a leafy wilderness; now bare twigs begin to prevail, and soon she will surprise us with a mantle of snow. Some green she thinks so good for our eyes that,