durand THE APPEAL OF THE BIRD 55 



However, it must be kept in mind, that men are responsible 



for the social institutions and conventions which control that 



hardening and narrowing process of their souls, and may change 



them if they choose. 



* * * * ♦ # 



The association of children with birds is one of the most 

 charming features of the literature of all peoples, and there is 

 none in which something memoiable of this nature does not 

 occur. I might quote from the Talmud to Barrie, who has 

 immortalized Kensington Gardens and its birds in his delightful 

 tale of David's metamorphosis. 



The fanciful attribution of birth, met with in the traditions 

 and myths of primitive people, is frequently associated with birds. 

 Modern poets maintain the lovelv fiction. Lytton writes to 

 "little Ella:" 



"I know not . . . what the flowers 



Said to you then 



And why the black bird in our laurel bowers 



Spoke to you only 



It was not strange these creatures loved you so, 



And told you all. 'Twas not so long ago 



You were yourself a bird, or else a flower." 

 Simile, indeed, would fail us cculd we not report the likeness 

 between children, birds, and spring. This association is remark- 

 able in folk-lore, and I need not remind you that in that storehouse 

 is to be found the transmitted experience of our race. 



The secrect of the appeal of the bird to the child lies in the 

 utter artlessness of both, in their spontaneity, in their unspoiled 

 joy in living, in their liberty to range the world untrammelled, 

 the bird on its wings, the child on imagination and on dreams, 

 and in the ideal of home of both, sheltered by the mother. 



That deepest and clearest of thinkers, Emerson, observes this 

 association in his lines in May Day: 



"Beloved of children, bards and spring, 



O birds, your perfect virtues bring." 



