Vlll THROUGH MY SPECTACLES 



Recognizing, too, the evident hunger for information 

 concerning every-day objects in Nature, and that where 

 one individual would write for enlightenment one hun- 

 dred would wonder in silence and ten thousand dwell in 

 heedless innocence, I realized that such a book might 

 also go forth as a missionary to open the eyes of the 

 blind, or at least quicken a desire for a fuller compre- 

 hension of the omnipresent marvel and beauty of the 

 commonplace. 



To all these considerations and conditions this volume 

 owes its final embodiment. It is, after all, but a hint. 

 If it shall serve as a courier, if only to open the door 

 to lower the bars, as it were, to these ''pastures new," 

 surely it will not have been uttered in vain. 



Not a few of my friends will, perhaps, discover fa- 

 miliar words in the following pages ; while others, I am 

 assured, will herein recognize the first response of a 

 dilatory correspondent. 



Sharp Eyes, then, is, in brief, a cordial recommenda- 

 tion and invitation to walk the woods and fields with 

 me, and reap the perpetual " harvest of a quiet eye," 

 which Nature everywhere bestows ; to witness with me 

 the strange revelations of this wild bal masque ; to 

 laugh, to admire, to study, to ponder, to philosophize 

 between the lines to question, and always to rejoice 

 and give thanks ! 



Sharp Eyes is, moreover, a plea for the rational, con- 

 templative country ramble. It is a messenger to that 

 thoughtless host to whom Nature is a closed book not 



o 



only unopened, but with leaves uncut to those who 

 would take a "walk" perhaps, but to whom, it would 

 -seem, the only virtues of a walk are comprised in the 

 quickening pulse, the expansion of lung, and the cul- 

 tivation of brawn. To such, a walk may be an exhila- 

 ration and a positive benefit, but scarcely the means of 

 grace which is implied in the stroll or ramble. I would 



