ABSTRACT
Joseph Wood Krutch was one of those rare individuals who are twice-blessed - he had been able to partake of the best of the two worlds that he here describes. For many years he was professor of dramatic literature at Columbia University. After retirement, he lived at the edge of the desert in Arizona. Country schools now give courses in "nature study" to the farmers' children, and they often need them almost as much as those bred in the slums. Beauty and joy are natural things. They are older than man, and they have their source in the natural part of him. Art becomes sterile and the joy of life withers when they become unnatural. Consider, for example, the case of Love. It has been, in many times, many different things. It has been considered in some ages primarily as Sin. In others, it has been considered as perhaps the greatest of the mystical experiences.
