Not Only Near At Hand,
In The Lithe Contortions With Which It Adapts Itself To The
Interchanges Of Level And
Slope, but far away also, when he sees a
few hundred feet of it upheaved against a hill and shining
In the
afternoon sun, he will find it an object so changeful and
enlivening that he can always pleasurably busy his mind about it.
He may leave the river-side, or fall out of the way of villages,
but the road he has always with him; and, in the true humour of
observation, will find in that sufficient company. From its subtle
windings and changes of level there arises a keen and continuous
interest, that keeps the attention ever alert and cheerful. Every
sensitive adjustment to the contour of the ground, every little dip
and swerve, seems instinct with life and an exquisite sense of
balance and beauty. The road rolls upon the easy slopes of the
country, like a long ship in the hollows of the sea. The very
margins of waste ground, as they trench a little farther on the
beaten way, or recede again to the shelter of the hedge, have
something of the same free delicacy of line - of the same swing and
wilfulness. You might think for a whole summer's day (and not have
thought it any nearer an end by evening) what concourse and
succession of circumstances has produced the least of these
deflections; and it is, perhaps, just in this that we should look
for the secret of their interest.
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