and look askance upon the most ancient habit.  I would have him throw a doubt upon Newton and defy Darwin!  I would have him look straight at men and nature with his own eyes.  He should acknowledge no common gods unless he proved them gods for himself.  The “equality of men” which we worship:  is there not a higher inequality?  The material progress which we deify:  is it real progress?  Democracy—­is it after all better than monarchy?  I would have him question the canons of art, literature, music, morals:  so will he continue young and useful!

And yet sometimes I ask myself.  What do I travel for?  Why all this excitement and eagerness of inquiry?  What is it that I go forth to find?  Am I better for keeping my roads open than my neighbour is who travels with contentment the paths of ancient habit?  I am gnawed by the tooth of unrest—­to what end?  Often as I travel I ask myself that question and I have never had a convincing answer.  I am looking for something I cannot find.  My Open Road is open, too, at the end!  What is it that drives a man onward, that scourges him with unanswered questions!  We only know that we are driven; we do not know who drives.  We travel, we inquire, we look, we work—­only knowing that these activities satisfy a certain deep and secret demand within us.  We have Faith that there is a Reason:  and is there not a present Joy in following the Open Road?

“And O the joy that is never won,
But follows and follows the journeying sun.”

And at the end of the day the Open Road, if we follow it with wisdom as well as fervour, will bring us safely home again.  For after all the Open Road must return to the Beaten Path.  The Open Road is for adventure; and adventure is not the food of life, but the spice.

Thus I came back this evening from rioting in my fields.  As I walked down the lane I heard the soft tinkle of a cowbell, a certain earthy exhalation, as of work, came out of the bare fields, the duties of my daily life crowded upon me bringing a pleasant calmness of spirit, and I said to myself: 

“Lord be praised for that which is common.”

And after I had done my chores I came in, hungry, to my supper.

IV

ON BEING WHERE YOU BELONG

Sunday Morning, May 20th.

On Friday I began planting my corn.  For many days previously I went out every morning at sun-up, in the clear, sharp air, and thrust my hand deep down in the soil of the field.  I do not know that I followed any learned agricultural rule, but somehow I liked to do it.  It has seemed reasonable to me, instead of watching for a phase of the moon (for I do not cultivate the moon), to inquire of the earth itself.  For many days I had no response; the soil was of an icy, moist coldness, as of death.  “I am not ready yet,” it said; “I have not rested my time.”

Early in the week we had a day or two of soft sunshine, of fecund warmth, to which the earth lay open, willing, passive.  On Thursday morning, though a white frost silvered the harrow ridges, when I thrust my hand into the soil I felt, or seemed to feel, a curious response:  a strange answering of life to life.  The stone had been rolled from the sepulchre!