FOOT-PATHS.
Air, sunlight, and exercise are absolutely essential for the proper
physical and intellectual development of human beings. Thoreau
thought it necessary for people who wished to preserve their health
and spirits to spend four hours a day in the open air, sauntering
through the woods and over the hills and fields, free from all
worldly engagements. No doubt he spoke from his own personal
standpoint, and many persons do not require so much exercise in the
open air as he did in order to preserve their health and spirits;
but the proper observance of the laws of health certainly requires
every one to spend a portion of every pleasant day in the open air,
and on foot if possible. Since the morning stars first sang
together, the whole creation has been groaning and travailing in
preparing the earth for the habitation of man; and the influence and
teachings of Nature have ever aided powerfully in perfecting man and
upbuilding the ruling nations of the world.
The progenitors of every vigorous race have always found in forest
and wilderness the tonics and sources of their strength. It took
forty years of wandering in the wilderness to prepare the Israelites
for the occupation of the promised land. In the open and out-door
life of the Athenians was developed a civilization noble in high
aspirations for the ideal in beauty and life, rich in literary and
oratorical achievements, and glorious in the great and profound
thoughts of immortal teachers and philosophers. The august and
all-conquering civilization of the Romans had its origin on Palatine
Hill when herdsmen and wolves roamed over it. In Holland, where the
people are ever in conflict with the elements of Nature, the land
has been reclaimed by human effort from "the multitudinous waves of
the sea." The streams that once spread over the land or hid
themselves in quicksands and thickets are made to flow in channels
and form a network of watery highways for commerce and the
fertilization of the soil; and where formerly lagoons and morasses
found a home, there are now pleasant homesteads, great cities, and
beautiful villages. The Anglo-Saxon race, which is now and has been
for centuries the most vigorous and progressive in the world, has
always had an insatiable hunger for the earth, and a love for a life
in the fields by stream or by roadside. Everywhere we find the
highest type of civilization where man has gained the mastery of
Nature by the work of his hands. The home of such a civilization is
usually found where forests have been removed, and the wild
vegetation of primitive times has been expelled to make room for the
thousand and one productions of modern cultivation; where hillsides
and mountain-cliffs have been festooned with vines and made to
blossom like the rose; where watercourses have been made highways
for trade and utilized for purposes of manufacture; and where gloomy
morasses and damp lowlands have been dried up and made fertile and
habitable by drainage and cultivation.
As close contact with Nature is necessary for the making of nations,
so her teachings are essential for the largest expansion of the
human mind. All the great teachers of the race have found in Nature
the germs of the thoughts which have widened the bounds of human
knowledge "with the process of the suns." "Speak to the earth, and
it will teach thee," was the basis of Job's philosophy. When David
wanted light and assistance, he lifted up his eyes unto the hills,
from whence came his help. Plato taught in the consecrated groves of
the Academy, and Aristotle in the pleasant fields of Nymphaeeum or in
the shady walks of the Lyceum. Christ taught his disciples to heed
the teachings of Nature, and he sought strength and inspiration in
the wilderness and the mountains. Wordsworth's library was in his
house, but his study was out of doors. But why enumerate, when the
entire intellectual history of our race demonstrates that every
invention or thought which has extended man's mental vision and
knowledge has been evolved from the discovery of some hitherto
hidden law of the material world, or from the teachings of Nature,
which always foreshadow the fundamental principles regnant in the
seen and the unseen world? Hence anything which tends to bring
people into the open air and into a closer communion with Nature is
worthy of encouragement.
Good foot-paths would furnish an easy and convenient way of getting
at Nature; and being free from the dust and heat of the highway, and
somewhat retired and secluded, they would be, during a considerable
portion of the year, musical with the song of birds and beautiful
with green foliage and lovely flowers. These paths would invite and
encourage people to take long walks, and this habit would
undoubtedly conduce to their longevity and robust health. And the
promotion of health is now regarded, in every enlightened community,
as one of the objects of government. The enjoyment of life depends
in great measure upon the state of our health. When the air feels
bracing, and food and drink taste sweet to us, much else in life
tastes sweet which would otherwise taste sour and disagreeable. Good
drainage and vaccination are not the only means available for the
promotion of the public health. People should be encouraged and
educated into the habit of taking plenty of exercise in the open
air, as in this way the public health will be improved.
One of the charms of old England is to be found in her numerous
foot-paths and green lanes, which are recognized by law, for many of
them are older than the highways. When a walker tires of the public
road or is in a hurry, if he knows the country, he can turn into
some foot-path and reach the place of his destination by short cuts
through green lanes, across pleasant meadows, and along shady
hedgerows. As one passes along these cosey byways, he sees, from
every eminence or turn, a new prospect over the landscape
interspersed with trees, now and then the bright gleam of water
through the foliage, and occasionally some beautiful vista view
across parks and homesteads. In this way one can go from town to
town, and get about the country quite independently of the highways.
Most of the country churches are approachable by lanes and
foot-paths which seem to run by all the houses in the vicinage, and
by their sweet attractiveness to invite all the people to go to
church, at least in pleasant summer weather.
In Massachusetts and some of the other States, towns and cities have
authority to lay out foot-paths in the same manner as public ways.
It is to be hoped ere-long that the intelligent and public-spirited
citizens of our towns and cities will cause now and then a good
foot-walk to be constructed, where it would shorten the distance
from one place to another, and possibly pass through pleasant fields
and woods, and over hills commanding beautiful and extensive views.
It is not pleasant to walk in the dust and publicity of highways,
nor on gravel walks in artificial parks, where sign-boards and
policemen warn you frequently to "keep off the grass."
Before our towns and cities spend any more money building boulevards
and opening new parks, would it not be well for them to consider the
advisability of laying out some foot-paths for the comfort and
convenience of pedestrians? At any rate, foot-paths could be made
alongside of the road-bed of some of the public ways, so that every
pedestrian would not of necessity have to trudge along in the dust
or mud incident to the middle of the road.