THE STUDY OF NATURE. 



23 





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,N!j templation. At the bottom of my dreams I began to S^^ 

 ^f feel the Infinite : I had glimpses of God, of the paternal ^!^^, 

 divinity of nature, which regards with equal tenderness 4«V 

 the blade of grass and the star. In this I found the 

 chief source of consolation ; nay, more, let me say, of 

 happiness. &^ 



" Ovir abode would have offered to an observant mind |-vi|' 



M a very agi-eeable field of study. All creatures under its I Ab 



hm\ benevolent protection seemed to find an asylum. We •/»>*] 



I i / had a fine fish-pond near the house, but no dove-cot ; \a \ 



for my parents could not endure the idea of dooming \&>. 



creatures to slavery whose life is all movement and 2s-\% 



freedom. Dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea-pigs, lived together 



in concord. The tame chickens, the pigeons, followed 



my mother everywhei'e, and fed from her hand. The 



sparrows built their nests among us ; the swallows 



even brooded under our barns ; they flew into our very 



chambers, and returned with each succeeding spring to 



the shelter of our roof 



" How often, too, have I found, in the goldfinches' 

 nests torn from our cypress-trees by nide autumnal 

 winds, fragments of my summer-robes buried in the 

 sand ! Beloved birds, which I then sheltered all unwit- W^i 

 tingly in a fold of my vestment, ye have to-day a surer 

 \^ shelter in my heart, but ye know it not ! 



" Our nightingales, less domesticated, wove their 

 nests in the lonely hedge-rows ; but, confident of a 

 generous welcome, they came to our threshold a hundred 

 times a-day, and besought from my mother, for them- 

 selves and their family, the silk-worms which had 

 perished. 



