lant INTRODUCTION 15 
on the dial, for such is the measure of his 
song, and I want them in the same place. 
Let me find them morning after morning, 
the starry-white petals radiating, striving 
upwards up to their ideal. Let me see the 
idle shadows resting on the white dust; let 
me hear the humble-bees, and stay to look 
down on the yellow dandelion disk. Let me 
see the very thistles opening their great 
crowns —I should miss the thistles; the reed 
grasses hiding the moor-hen; the bryony 
bine, at first crudely ambitious and lifted by 
force of youthful sap straight above the 
hedgerow to sink of its weight presently and 
progress with crafty tendrils; swifts shot 
through the air with outstretched wings like 
erescent-headed shaftless arrows darted from 
the clouds; the chaffinch with a feather in 
her bill ; all the living staircase of the spring, 
step by step, upwards to the great gallery of 
the summer, let me watch the same succession 
year by year.” 
After all then he did enjoy the change 
and the succession. 
Kingsley again in his charming prose 
