The wordless movement …

… First Known When Lost: Peace And Quiet.

There is an outer and an inner dimension to the peace and quiet that we seek. The goal, as Gissing suggests, is "life that is led in thoughtful stillness," a life in which we strive to "possess [our] souls in quiet." However, living in this manner does not entail an abandonment of the World. "But there is the rustle of branches in the morning breeze; there is the music of a sunny shower against the window; there is the matin sound of birds. Several times lately I have lain wakeful when there sounded the first note of the earliest lark; it makes me almost glad of my restless nights." George Gissing, The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft, page 72. These are "the lucidities of life/That are my daily beauty" that John Drinkwater speaks of in "The Wood."