Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast.

This reading has been edited and adapted from the book Practical Ethics by William DeWitt Hyde, published in 1892.

The love of nature, like all love, cannot be forced.

It is not directly under the control of our will.

We cannot set about it in deliberate fashion like we set about earning a living.

Still, it can be cultivated.

We can place ourselves in contact with nature's more impressive aspects.

We can go away by ourselves, stroll through the woods, watch the clouds, bask in the sunshine,

brave the storm, listen to the notes of birds, find out the haunts of living creatures,

learn the times and places in which to find the flowers, gaze upon the glowing sunset,

and look up into the starry skies. If we thus keep close to nature,

she will draw us to herself

and whisper to us more and more of her hidden meaning.

The eye, it cannot choose but see.

We cannot bid the year be still. our bodies feel, wherever they be, against or with

our will.

Nor less I deem that there are powers which of themselves our minds impress, that we can

feed these minds of ours in a wise receptiveness.

The more we feel of the beauty and significance of nature, the more we become capable of feeling,

and this capacity to feel the influences which nature is constantly throwing around us is an

indispensable element in noble and elevated character.

Our thoughts, our acts, yes, our very forms and features, reflect the objects which we habitually welcome to our minds and hearts.

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