Natural history -- Outdoor books; Nature; Nature study; Paris (France) -- Description and travel
Having now informed the hamlets of the books which are in existence, if
complete success is desired, the next step should be to put specimens
of those books before the eyes of the residents. To read of them, to
know that they exist, and then to actually see them--as Londoners see
them in every street--is a logical process leading to purchases. As
already pointed out, there are little shops in every village and hamlet
where the local paper can be obtained which would gladly expose books
for sale if the offer were made to them. The same remark applies to the
shops in the market towns. These, too, require to be supplied; they
require the thing explained to them, and they would at once try it.
Finally, let a traveller once now and then come along, and call at
these shops to wake up and stir the business and change the face of the
counter. Let him while in the hamlet also call at as many houses and
cottages as he can manage in a few hours, leaving circulars--always
circulars--behind him. There would then be a complete system of supply.
SUNLIGHT IN A LONDON SQUARE [Footnote: The sunlight and the winds enter
London, and the life of the fields is there too, if you will but see
it.]
There are days now and again when the summer broods in Trafalgar
Square; the flood of light from a cloudless sky gathers and grows,
thickening the air; the houses enclose the beams as water is enclosed
in a cup. Sideways from the white-painted walls light is reflected;
upwards from the broad, heated pavement in the centre light and heat
ascend; from the blue heaven it presses downwards. Not only from the
sun--one point--but from the entire width of the visible blue the
brilliant stream flows. Summer is enclosed between the banks of
houses--all summer's glow and glory of exceeding brightness. The blue
panel overhead has but a stray fleck of cloud, a Cupid drawn on the
panel in pure white, but made indefinite by distance. The joyous
swallows climb high into the illuminated air till the eye, daunted by
the glow, can scarce detect their white breasts as they turn.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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