192 ANNUAL REPORT. 



or the birds of '' Sweet Afton," 



"Where wild in the woodlands the primroses blow," 

 and these four liaes from oae of Burns' songs: 



"The lavrock shuns the palace gay, 



And o'er the cottage sings; 

 For nature smiles as sweet, I ween, 



To shepherds as to kings;" 



or this also from Burns — now mark it: 



" The feathered people you might see, 



Perched all around on every tree, 

 In notes of sweetest melody. 



They hail the charming Chloe!" — 



This is poetry; there is not a finer verse in the human language. 

 We sometimes hear one speak of getting down to the level of the 

 beast. One who gets up to Burns's level when that inspiration 

 flashed upon his mind — '''the feathered peopW' — has got to climb! 

 "Perched all around on every tree!" 



Behold the blackbirds, the robins, the brown thrushes — our 

 American mavis, for even the thrushes are social if you court them 

 well — all the social birds of spring or summer — what else are 

 they up there in the trees for but to greet the little maiden 

 in white frock and bright ribbons, and gaily trinked with flowers 

 as she dances about the meadow or the lawn? — 

 or forget when 



" On the briar the budding rose 

 Still richer breathes and fairer blows;" 

 or 



" The woodbine in the dewy weet 

 Where evening shades and silence meet," 



or the 

 " Wee, modest, crimson-tipped flower,'' 

 that in the '' Lines to a Mountain Daisy" inspired our bard of na- 

 ture with a poem whose every line is a gem as clear as — 

 " The dew-drop clinging 

 To the rose just newly born;" — 



and how much less there would be to make the appreciative gar- 

 dener's thumb-marks on the well-worn leaves of Scottish poetry. 



Time will not permit us now to wander longer in the gardens of 

 literature abroad; nor even to stop and trace the influence of the 

 garden upon American life — we can only glance at it. In litera- 

 ture, our poets who have attained the highest rank and the great- 

 est fame, are the most reverent students of nature and the best 



