Every third page was filled with the usual botany, rocks, skies, colors, fore and backgrounds--"all very fine"-- but in the whole of it not one of those little touches of truth which stir us so in SHAKESPEARE, make us smile in HERRICK or naive PEPYS, or raise our hearts in WORDSWORTH.

These were true men.
To be true we must be far more familiar with Nature than with scene painting or photographs, and to do this we must, so to speak, fascinate ourselves with pictures in life, glad memories of golden hours, rock and river and greenwood tree.

We must also banish resolutely from our past all recollections of enemies and wrongs, troubles and trials, and throw all our heart into doing so.

Forgive and forget all enmities--those of Misfortune and Fate being included.
Depend upon it that the brighter you can make your Past the pleasanter will be your Future.
This is just the opposite to what most people do, hence the frequent and fond quotation of pessimistic poetry.

It is all folly, and worse.
One result is that in modern books of travel the only truthful or vivid descriptions are of sufferings of all kinds, even down to inferior luncheons and lost hair brushes.