A YEAR WITH THE BIRDS, 



MUSIC OF BIRDS. 





AMONG civilized people those are the most cheerful 

 and happy, if possessed of a benevolent heart and favored 

 with the ordinary gifts of fortune, who have acquired by 

 habit and education the power of deriving pleasure from 

 the objects that lie immediately around them. But these 

 sources of happiness are open to those only who are en- 

 dowed with sensibility, and who have received a favora- 

 ble intellectual training. The more ordinary the mental 

 and moral organization and culture of the individual, the 

 more far-fetched and dear-bought must be his enjoyments. 

 Nature has given us in full development only those appe- 

 tites which are necessary to our physical well-being. She 

 has left our moral powers and affections in the germ, to 

 be developed by education and reflection. Hence that 

 serene delight that comes chiefly from the exercise of the 

 imagination and the moral sentiments can be felt only 

 by persons of superior and peculiar refinement of mind. 

 The ignorant and rude are dazzled and delighted by the 

 display of gorgeous splendor, and charmed by loud and 

 stirring sounds. But the more simple melodies arid less 

 attractive colors and forms, that appeal to the imagination 

 for their principal effect, are felt only by individuals of a 

 poetic temperament. 



