THE SECRET OF THE SOIL 



creatures he had hitherto supposed to be 

 the gentlest and most delicate examples 

 cf animated nature, was, I regret to say, 

 such a shock to all his preconceived ideas, 

 that it seriously cooled his ardour toward 

 our birds, and caused him to regard them 

 thereafter as ruffians and swashbucklers, 

 useful and ornamental in the trees where 

 they belonged, but whose nearer acquaint- 

 ance he did not care to cultivate ! In- 

 deed, " self-preservation is the first law 

 of nature" with us, as with the rest of 

 the world, and all our wild creatures 

 seem to be perfectly able to take care of 

 "number one," and have no intention of 

 putting up with imposition from any- 

 body. 



In such wild surroundings a formal gar- 

 den, even could it have been made (which 

 is doubtful), would have been not only 

 37 



