Living with Nature, not for it

Nature “dies” on those who try to live for a love of nature. Coleridge ended by being insensible to her; Wordsworth, by lamenting that the glory had passed away. Say your prayers in a garden early, ignoring steadfastly the dew, the birds and the flowers, and you will come away overwhelmed by its freshness and joy; go there in order to be overshelmed and, after a certain age, nine times out of ten nothing will happen to you.

–

The Four Loves (New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1988), 22.