SOME TENNESSEE BIRD NOTES. 199 



thought of analyzing or justifying his emo- 

 tions. He is better employed. Afterward, 

 in some vacant mood, with no longer any- 

 thing actively to enjoy, he may play with 

 the past, and from an evil habit, or flatter- 

 ing himself with a show of intellectuality, 

 may turn his former delight into a study ; 

 tickling his present conceit of himself by 

 smiling at the man he used to be. How 

 very wise he has grown, to be sure ! All 

 such refinements, nevertheless, if he did but 

 know it, are only a poorer kind of child's 

 play; less spontaneous, infinitely less satis- 

 fying, and equally irrational. Ecstasy is 

 not to be assayed by any test that the rea- 

 son is competent to apply ; nor does it need 

 either defense or apology. It is its own 

 end, and so, like beauty, its own excuse for 

 being. That is one of the crowning felici- 

 ties of this present order of things, the 

 world, as we call it. What dog would hunt 

 if there were no excitement in overhauling 

 the game ? And how would elderly people 

 live through long evenings if there were no 

 exhilaration in the odd trick ? 



" What good does it do ? " a prudent 

 friend and adviser used to say to me, smiling 



