When we consider the different forms of pleasure offered by the contemplation of nature, the first is a feeling that does not depend on a deep knowledge of natural phenomena or on the particular character of the landscape around us. On a vast plain, where the horizon disappears into the distance, or on the shore where the waves gently break upon the sand, the mind is filled with the same sense of grandeur and immensity. Through a kind of mysterious intuition, the soul perceives that behind this spectacle lie laws governing the forces of the universe.

Simple communion with nature, contact with the open air, has an influence that is both calming and strengthening upon the weary spirit. It quiets the storm of the passions and softens the heart when it has been shaken by sorrow. In every region of the Earth, and at every level of intellectual development, human beings may draw from the same source.

The serious and elevated thoughts inspired by nature arise from an intuitive sense of the order and harmony that pervade the universe. Before the starry sky, the boundless plain or the distant horizon of the sea, we become aware of the limits of our own existence in the presence of the infinite.