BEHIND THE EYE. 117 



imaginative ; in a passive, unproductive 

 sense, poetical. I delighted in the woods 

 and fields, the seashore and the lonely road, 

 not for the birds or flowers to be found 

 there, but for the " serene and blessed 

 mood " into which I was put by such friend- 

 ship. Later in life, it transpired, as much 

 to my surprise as to anybody's else, that I 

 had a bent toward natural history, as well 

 as toward nature ; an inclination to study, 

 as well as to dream over, the beautiful world 

 about me. I must know the birds apart, 

 and the trees, and the flowers. A bit of 

 country was no longer a mere landscape, a 

 picture, but a museum as well. For a time 

 the poet seemed to be dead within me ; and 

 happy as I found myself in my new pursuits, 

 I had fits of bewailing my former condition. 

 Science and fancy, it appeared, would not 

 travel hand in hand ; if a man must be a 

 botanist, let him bid good-by to the Muse. 

 Then I fled again to Emerson and Words- 

 worth, trying to read the naturalist asleep 

 and reawaken the poet. Happy thought ! 

 The two men, the student and the lover, 

 were still there ; and there they remain to 

 this day. Sometimes one is at the window, 

 sometimes the other. 



