NATURAL HISTORY STUDIES 



withering of the present. The farewell that seemed 

 for ever is often more accurately " Au Revoir," 

 " Auf Wiedersehen." For the tide of life which has 

 now turned in ebb is not one that sinks sullen and 

 empty from a rocky shore ; it is rather like that 

 which bears from some great seaport a fleet of richly 

 laden ships. The ebb of the year is the time when 

 fruits ripen, when seeds are scattered and sown ; 

 it is not an end, it is a new beginning. There is 

 indeed stranding and wreckage, as the dead birds 

 among the jetsam tell us plainly ; but the autumn 

 fruits are more characteristic. They crown the 

 plant's work for the year, and form the cradles of 

 next year's seedlings ; they protect the young lives 

 within the seeds, and also secure their dispersal. 

 Many of them harden, crack and split like withered 

 leaves, which is just what many of them are ; others 

 swell and soften into succulence. 



Amid much Death abundant Life 



The drops of water rise to the apex of the sunlit 

 fountain, enter for a brief moment into the formation 

 of a rainbow, and are hurried to the earth again. 

 Such is life. The organism rises to the crest of the 

 wave, reaches its limit of growth, and reproduces ; 

 then is hurried from the climax of loving to the last 

 crisis of dying. So all around us in autumn we see 

 the little child Love, as in the world-famous picture, 

 holding the door against stalwart Death who intrudes. 

 The curfew tolls, the fires of life burn low, the lights 

 of love die out, the petals of the last poppy are shed, 

 the butterflies disappear with the sunbeams which 



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