Country life -- England; England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century; Natural history -- Outdoor books
Such a course inflicts the greatest moral injury on the world.
Remaining content upon a mental level is fatal, saying to ourselves,
'There is nothing more, this is our limit; we can go no farther,' is
the ruin of the mind, as much sleep is the ruin of the body. Looking
back through history, it is evident that thought has forced itself
out on the world by its own power and against an immense inertia.
Thought has worked its way by dint of its own energy, and not
because it was welcomed. So few care or hope for a higher mental
level; the old terrace of mind will do; let us rest; be assured no
higher terrace exists. Experience, however, from time to time has
proved that higher terraces did exist. Without doubt there are
others now. Somewhere behind the broad beam of life sweeping so
beautifully through the combe, somewhere behind the flower, and in
the wind. Yet to come up over the blue hill line, there are deeper,
wider thoughts still. Always let us look higher, in spite of the
narrowness of daily life. The little is so heavy that it needs a
strong effort to escape it. The littleness of daily routine; the
care felt and despised, the minutiae which grow against our will,
come in time to be heavier than lead. There should be some comfort
in the thought that, however these may strain the mind, it is
certain that hardly a fiftieth part of its real capacity is occupied
with them. There is an immense power in it unused. By stretching one
muscle too much it becomes overworked; still, there are a hundred
other muscles in the body. In truth, we do not fully understand our
own earth, our own life, yet. Never, never let us permit the weight
of little things to bear us wholly down. If any object that these
are vague aspirations, so is the wind vague, yet it is real. They
may direct us as strongly as the wind presses on the sails of a
ship.
The blue hill line arouses a perception of a current of thought
which lies for the most part unrecognized within--an unconscious
thought. By looking at this blue hill line this dormant power within
the mind becomes partly visible; the heart wakes up to it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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