INTRODUCTION xiii 



seldom-trodden paths, the conviction came to me 

 that it was mine still, mine only ; that it was to 

 me what it never could be to any other ; . that its 

 influence had become part of my life ; that its 

 heart was mine, and undiscoverable by any other. 

 So I took possession again, and enjoyed the 

 hour.' 



To return to the ' Bird Notes.' They may be 

 thought in some degree to suffer from the lack of 

 any systematic plan that should connect and 

 arrange them in a more or less definite order : yet 

 this was never their aim, and their freedom and 

 freshness must have been dulled if they had been 

 written under the impression that they were to 

 be submitted to a possible circle of unknown 

 readers. They are a series of small sketches from 

 the life, jotted down by the writer at the moment 

 when the sight or sound was vividly present to 

 her senses ; senses quickened by hereditary apti- 

 tude, by artistic training, and above all by that 

 loving sympathy which is the condition of true 

 insight. 



Another objection too lies on the surface, and 

 an easy smile might be raised by the frank 

 ' anthropomorphism ' of many of the notes ; yet 



