July 
one day afforded in seeing a flock of goldfinches 
and indigo-birds running about over the grass. 
An artist would find difficulty in projecting 
indigo-blue on a congenial green background, 
but nature hesitates at nothing, and is never at 
fault as a colorist. 
The handsomest all-the-year-round bird in 
this region is the cardinal grosbeak (one of the 
finches), and it has a peculiar and interesting, 
if not altogether commendable, individuality. 
With a refined, courtly, and self-conscious air 
in bearing and song, it seems to typify a sort 
of aristocracy that feels the weight of inherited 
consequence, revelling in the deep blessedness 
of a prolonged and illustrious ancestry. A 
person’s relation to his ancestors is singular and 
extremely convenient. It enables him to ap- 
propriate their virtues and repudiate their vices, 
and in many instances a large proportion of their 
mental and moral assets are thus derived, as well 
as their chief claim to recognition in society. 
Ancestral greatness is capable of being a source 
of perennial and inextinguishable joy, almost as 
great as that of the lady who said that, in the 
consciousness of being well dressed, she found a 
satisfaction such as even the consolations of re- 
ligion could not afford. 
217 
