In many other ways was the child the father of
the man. He not only loved nature and suffered
it to kindle his imagination, but he explored it
for its meanings and mapped it out for its uses.
He was a born engineer, always laying out roads
and building parks, and finding the best paths for
railways among the hills. The park in Hartford,
which bears his name, was the fruit of a hfelong
passion. When visiting Dr. Washington Gladden
in North Adams, in 1886, he pointed out to him
where the park of the growing town should be
located.! Prophetic also were his early rehgious
experiences. Heayen lay very close about him in
his early years. The freshness of the morning
moved bim to prayer. His religious impressions
came along the path of nature, — in the fields and
pastures, — and so coming they were without fear
or sense of wrong, but fuU of the divine beauty
and majesty. Deeper experiences springing from
the same source were to follow. Nature became
a permanent factor in his thought as a revelation
of divine things, — a feature in which he bears a
striking resemblance to Edwards. As he drew
near to manhood, he feU away, for a time, from

1 The snggestion, unfortunately, was not followed, but the
Congregational Chuich in North Adama is to be credited with
the good sense and courage to invite Dr. Bushnell, when few
pnlpits in New England were open to him, to preach the sermon
at the installation of their young pastor.
